Horry County, SC Home Business: Cottage Food Operations (2026)

Section 927 of the county's zoning ordinance lets a residence host a home occupation only if it stays incidental and secondary to residential use, doesn't change the character of the dwelling, and meets conditions on parking, noise, signage and floor area. " That bar applies regardless of lot size. Subsections D through G set graduated operating standards for allowed home occupations by acreage, from one acre or less up through one and a half acres and above, and each tier carves out narrow exceptions for a handful of the Section C uses (trucking companies, welding fabrication, auto/body repair, taxi and limousine service, heavy equipment operations on five-plus acres) but none of those exceptions touch restaurants or on-site retail sales, so the prohibition holds on every acreage tier, including AG-zoned land.

South Carolina's cottage food exemption addresses food-safety licensing for certain low-risk foods made in a home kitchen; it doesn't preempt local zoning. A cottage food producer in unincorporated Horry County still has to sell off-site, through a farmers market, online orders with off-site pickup or delivery, or wholesale to a store, or locate the sales operation on commercially zoned property instead of running it out of the house.