Dorchester County, SC Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

7(i)(4) of the County's Zoning and Land Development Standards, adopted under Ordinance No. 04-13 effective October 1, 2004, states that illuminated billboards shall be placed no less than four hundred (400) feet in horizontal radius from any property zoned or used for residential purposes. The rule sits inside the county's broader billboard standard, which otherwise confines billboards to expressway rights-of-way or land within fifty feet of one in Commercial General or Industrial districts, caps sign faces at 12-by-25 or 14-by-48 feet, and limits height to 40 feet (70 feet near an elevated roadway).

6(f) requires anyone filing for a sign permit, including a billboard, to disclose the output, in lumens, of each light source used for exterior signage lighting, in addition to the sign's dimensions, site plat and installation cost. The Zoning Administrator reviews that lighting data alongside the 400-foot residential setback before a permit is issued, so an illuminated billboard proposed within 400 feet of a residential lot line cannot be permitted no matter what lumen output is disclosed. The setback runs from the residential property line outward as a radius, not merely a straight-line roadway distance, so it applies to residential land located on any side of the sign.