Aiken County, SC Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

Sec. 3(9)a sets the baseline standard for every residential building-lot driveway: a minimum width of 12 feet, and a driveway may serve no more than two parcels of land before it must be treated as a shared, named road under the county's road-naming guidelines. Every driveway must have stable shoulders and adequate drainage and stormwater controls to prevent erosion or excess runoff onto connecting rights-of-way, and any pipe used for a stream crossing or drainage must be sized for at least a ten-year storm and able to bear emergency-vehicle loads without deforming.

Subsection (9)b then targets driveways that aren't built of concrete or asphalt: the first 30 feet of length, measured from the edge of the access road's travel surface, must be covered with at least a two-inch-thick compacted all-weather surface such as gravel, crushed stone, or shell, and porous paving blocks or planning-director-approved recycled materials are also allowed. Those same unpaved driveways cannot exceed a 5 percent grade for the first 20 feet from the street, though the planning and development director can grant an exception if a qualified engineer certifies adequate stormwater and sediment controls, and that certification must be filed before the final plat is recorded or before a certificate of occupancy is issued.

Paved driveways get a parallel, steeper grade allowance in subsection (9)c, permitting up to a 15 percent slope on the second ten feet of length as long as slope-deflection changes don't exceed 10 percent so vehicles don't bottom out.