In unincorporated Richland County, unsafe, dilapidated, or junk-strewn property can be declared a public nuisance. Vacant and abandoned structures must meet the International Property Maintenance Code, and the county can order repair or demolition of dangerous buildings.
Richland County regulates blight through its offenses and building chapters. Vacant or abandoned manufactured homes must comply with HUD regulations, the International Property Maintenance Code, and county ordinances. Boarding up a structure's egress or ingress to secure it requires a permit from the Building Codes and Inspections Department (Sec. 6-84). Under Sec. 18-8, the Sheriff, with the County Administrator's concurrence, may declare a violating business or condition a public nuisance and, where imminent danger exists, may undertake emergency abatement by securing, shuttering, or closing it. Inside Columbia, Forest Acres, or Blythewood, the city's own property-maintenance code governs.
Public-nuisance and property-maintenance violations are enforced by uniform traffic ticket, warrant, or citation; the county may abate hazards and recover costs, and general-penalty fines run up to $500 or 30 days.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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Richland County has no ordinance banning residential backyard composting. Reasonable home compost piles are allowed, but a pile that becomes a nuisance, harb...
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Richland County has no ordinance specifically permitting or prohibiting artificial turf on residential lots. Single-family yards are exempt from the county's...
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Richland County does not require homeowners to plant native species, but its Land Development Code favors them: on development sites, trees and plants in par...
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Rainwater harvesting is legal in South Carolina and Richland County has no ordinance banning or permitting residential rain barrels or cisterns. The county a...
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Richland County itself imposes no permanent lawn-watering ordinance. Outdoor water use is governed by your water utility and by South Carolina's Drought Resp...
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Richland County Code Sec. 18-4 treats overgrown grass, weeds, dead brush and noxious plants in developed areas as "unsafe and noxious vegetation." The sherif...
See how Richland County's property blight rules stack up against other locations.
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