York County, SC Parking Rules: EV Charging (2026)

027(F) of the York County zoning ordinance addresses electric vehicle charging stations within the county's general parking area design standards, the same chapter that sets space dimensions, surfacing, and lighting rules for off-street lots. The ordinance is permissive rather than mandatory: chargers "may be incorporated into parking lots," so the county does not require any development, whether a shopping center, church, or subdivision, to install EV infrastructure. Once a property owner chooses to add chargers, the code folds them into the lot's existing parking count rather than treating them as bonus spaces, meaning a charging space can satisfy the minimum number of spaces a use is required to provide under the parking tables elsewhere in Chapter 154, or count against a maximum cap where one applies.

Placement is restricted to three physical configurations: the charger must sit in a parking lot island, be mounted to a structure, or be protected by bollards, curbs, or similar barriers, all aimed at preventing vehicle strikes on the equipment. 027(A) and (D). Because charging stations are treated as a parking design element rather than a separate use, no additional conditional use permit or special exception is triggered by installing them; the standard site plan and zoning compliance review under Chapter 154 covers the improvement. There is no incentive or requirement tied to EV chargers elsewhere in the code that a search of the parking and zoning enforcement chapters turns up.