Georgetown County, SC Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Article III of Chapter 13.8 regulates conduct specifically on the county-owned Marshwalk and Jetty View Walk structures in Murrells Inlet, and Sec. 13.8-42(4) expressly prohibits vending, bartering, selling, soliciting, or begging, or other commercial activity of any kind on those structures, on top of whatever state and local laws already apply. The only carve-out is for a community event or festival that Georgetown County has permitted in, on, or around the Marshwalk or Jetty View Walk; even then, only the county administrator, through written permission, can authorize commercial activity for a fixed period, and that activity still cannot interfere with pedestrian use of the walkway.

The same article bars ten other categories of conduct on the Marshwalk and Jetty View Walk, including biking, skateboarding, swimming within 100 feet of the structure, motorized vehicles other than county business, storing goods or wares without written permission, and littering. The Georgetown County Sheriff's Office enforces the article under Sec. 13.8-44 and may order anyone violating it to immediately vacate the Marshwalk or Jetty View Walk and its surrounding premises. Because the prohibition is written as an absolute ban rather than a permit or licensing scheme, there is no application process a panhandler or vendor can use to operate lawfully on the Marshwalk itself; the only path to lawful solicitation there is the county-permitted special event exception.

Adopted by Ordinance No. 2013-33 on September 24, 2013, the article's penalty clause at Sec. 13.8-45 applies uniformly across all ten prohibitions, including the begging and soliciting ban.