Lexington County, SC Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sec. 22, as rewritten by Ord. No. 23-17 effective June 25, 2024, treats regular care, supervision, or guidance of more than six individuals, whether pre-teenage children, senior citizens, or adults with disabilities, as item h, requiring a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals rather than the variance process used for items like signage or traffic. The count includes anyone who lives at the site of the home occupation, so household members being cared for count toward the six-person threshold that triggers the special exception requirement.

No special exception can authorize more than 12 individuals total, and any exception granted is tied to the specific operator and site originally approved; it cannot transfer to a new operator or location. The ordinance also bars a single special exception from covering both children and adults at the same location. Unlike other home occupations, a home occupation day care is exempt from the 25-percent floor-area and 750-square-foot caps, and may use outdoor yard furnishings customary to a residential setting as part of the care activity.

Additional traffic from one daily drop-off and one daily pick-up per individual is folded into the traffic-generation standard under item e rather than treated separately. In deciding a special exception application, the Board of Zoning Appeals weighs the size of the residence and outdoor recreation area, parking and vehicular access for drop-off and pick-up, the stated opinions of surrounding property owners, and, if requested, the acceptability of a non-resident caregiver as defined by the South Carolina Department of Social Services.