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

6, "Institutional uses," and sets four conditions for operating a family day care home inside a residential dwelling in unincorporated Berkeley County. Subsection A limits the use to an accessory to a permitted residential use, meaning the property must already carry a lawful residential use before day care can be layered on top; it cannot be the principal use of a lot. Subsection B requires compliance with all South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) requirements, tying the local zoning permission to the state's separate childcare licensing and health/safety standards administered by DSS.

" Subsection D bars hired help beyond the resident operator: "Employees, other than the resident, are prohibited," meaning the operator running the home day care must be the person living there, with no outside staff brought in to assist. Because the provision is an accessory-use standard rather than a stand-alone commercial use, a family day care home does not require the site-plan or special exception review that larger institutional or commercial uses go through elsewhere in Article 11; it functions by right as long as the dwelling remains residential, the operator stays under the state DSS umbrella, and the six-child and no-employee limits are respected. The section was adopted by Ordinance No. 06-09-63 in 2006 and amended by Ordinance No. 14-03-03 in 2014.