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

Section 21.3.2, "Small Parking Areas," of the Dorchester County Zoning and Land Development Standards (Ordinance 04-13) governs sub-grade, base work and surfacing for driveways and parking areas with fewer than six spaces, subject to County Engineer approval. Subsection (b) requires that driveways and parking areas built in urban zoning districts meet the paved base-and-surface standards of Section 21.3.1(b), the same specification used for larger commercial lots (stabilized aggregate base course with an asphalt, bituminous, or concrete surface course). That paving mandate carries an explicit carve-out: it does not apply to driveways "serving single-family detached residences and individually sited manufactured homes in the SR and TRM zoning districts." Subsection (c) states the flip side directly for the rural side of the county: driveways and parking areas serving single-family detached residences and individually sited manufactured homes in the SR1 and SR2 districts, and throughout rural districts generally, "may employ pervious surfaces in conformance with 21.3.3(e)." Section 21.3.3(e) allows base course or surfacing to be substituted with decorative hardscape (brick, tabby) or pervious materials, gravel, crushed oyster shells, or a steel grid system over grass, provided the surface can support expected parking and traffic loads as determined by the County Engineer.

Subsection (a) adds a separate wetlands-driven exception: any driveway or parking area built within 200 feet of wetlands may also use a pervious surface under the same 21.3.3(e) standard, regardless of zoning district. Subsection (d) additionally requires that any driveway accessing a curbed street include a paved "skirt" (the portion within the right-of-way or between the roadway and sidewalk) built to the 21.3.1(b) paving standard, even where the rest of the driveway is pervious. Homeowners doing driveway work in an urban zoning district outside these carve-outs must pave to the 21.3.1(b) specification; those in SR1/SR2 or rural districts, or within 200 feet of wetlands, may keep a gravel, shell or grass-grid surface as long as it holds up under expected traffic.