Florence County, SC Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Sec. 6, the Land Development and Subdivision Ordinance, gives the Florence County Planning Commission discretionary authority during subdivision plat review to require preservation of outstanding natural features, historical landmarks, sites and buildings, scenic spots, water bodies, and significant stands of trees. The same section requires existing riparian buffers to be maintained, and new buffers provided where none exist, in accordance with the zoning ordinance. Separately, the county's Unsafe Structure Abatement Code carves out its own historic exemption: Sec. 21-29 says the code's minimum-safety and repair provisions are not mandatory for buildings the code official judges safe and in the public interest if they are listed or preliminarily eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, contribute to a registered or preliminarily-qualifying historic district, or are designated historic under a state or local historic preservation program.

Together these two provisions are the only historic-preservation tools in the county code: a subdivision-stage preservation condition set by the Planning Commission, and a building-code exemption for already-recognized historic structures. There is no county landmarks commission or binding designation process created by this code.