Florence County, SC Parking Rules: Loading Zones (2026)

Article VI of the Florence County Zoning Ordinance, Sections 30-221 through 30-229, supplements the parking and loading tables in Table I and Table II for every zoning district in the unincorporated county. Section 30-227 is the operative loading rule: all uses must provide off-street loading space sufficient for their own requirements, and that space must be arranged so no vehicle being loaded or unloaded during normal operations stands in or projects into a public street, sidewalk, alley or private street. Loading and unloading space must be located on the same lot or parcel as the structure it serves in every district except B-4, the county's most intensive commercial district, where off-site loading arrangements are allowed.

The loading requirement sits alongside the general off-street parking standards in Section 30-221: where a required parking calculation produces a fraction, the county rounds up to the next larger requirement, and any building or use that expands enough to increase its parking need by ten percent or more must add spaces on the basis of that enlargement. Section 30-223 sets design standards that apply to loading and parking areas alike, including a minimum nine-by-19-foot space dimension, drainage that cannot run across public sidewalks or onto adjacent property, and a requirement that all vehicle movement onto a public street occur in a forward motion.

The Florence County Planning Department, through the zoning administrator, reviews loading and parking layouts as part of site plan and certificate of zoning compliance review before a building permit issues.