Aiken County, SC Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Table 2 of the Aiken County zoning ordinance sets the "Maximum Height" standard referenced in Section 24-2.5(a) at 35 feet across most of the county's zoning districts: the Residential Single-Family Conservation (RC), Residential Limited Mixed Use (RM), Residential-Horse 5 (RH5), Office-Residential (OR), Neighborhood Commercial (NC), Limited Development (LD), Rural District (RUD), Rural Community (RUC), Highway Corridor Overlay (HCO), Residential-Horse Business (RH5B), Rural Residential Commercial (RRC), and Agricultural Preservation (AP) Districts are all held to that 35-foot ceiling.

Three districts carry no fixed number instead: the Residential Multifamily Development (RD), Urban Development (UD), and Industrial (IND) Districts are marked with Table 2 note (F), which states there is "No limit; however, required minimum side and rear setbacks shall be increased at the rate of three and one-half (3.5) feet for each floor over the second." In practice, a taller building in one of those three districts is possible, but it must push its side and rear walls progressively farther from the property line for every additional floor beyond the second, which limits how tall a building can realistically go on a standard lot.

Table 2 note (G) defines exactly how height is measured: "from the average finished grade at the building line to the highest point of a flat roof or midpoint of a pitched roof." That measurement method applies uniformly, whether the district uses the flat 35-foot cap or the graduated setback-for-height trade-off in note (F). A property owner planning a structure taller than 35 feet in a capped district needs either a variance from the Board of Appeals or must be located in RD, UD, or IND, where the setback trade-off substitutes for a hard ceiling.