Lee County, NC Parking Rules: Driveway Rules (2026)

UDO § 8.2.6 sets the paving standard for every required off-street parking area and vehicular traffic surface in the county's zoning jurisdiction: the surface has to be graded for drainage and finished in concrete or bituminous asphalt pavement. The ordinance carves out two exceptions. First, overflow or event parking, defined as off-street parking provided beyond the minimum the ordinance requires, can use a turf or gravel surface instead of pavement. Second, paving can be waived for parking areas and access ways serving assembly uses such as churches, sports facilities and fairgrounds if the applicant shows the Administrator those spaces will not be used regularly, meaning less than five times a week; a lot granted that waiver still has to maintain a turf or approved gravel surface and meet the accessibility and fire-prevention standards in Volumes I-C and V of the North Carolina State Building Code.

Outside those two exceptions, gravel or bare-earth driveways and parking surfaces do not satisfy § 8.2.6. Every parking and vehicular surface, paved or waived, has to stay in sound condition, free of weeds, dust, trash and debris under § 8.2.6.2. Parking spaces are also barred from any required street yard or buffer yard under § 8.2.2, so a paved surface still has to sit outside the landscaping strip along the frontage.