Florence County, SC Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Florence County builds two separate farm protections into its property-maintenance ordinances. First, § 21-2(1), part of the general nuisance chapter, states plainly that the growing of agricultural crops or natural growth areas are not an act of nuisance under this chapter. That sentence sits directly after the section's ban on letting a property become unsanitary or a fire menace by allowing offensive matter to accumulate, meaning a working farm field or a natural, unmown growth area cannot be cited as a blight nuisance the way an overgrown vacant lot can.

Second, § 21-17, the scope section of the Unsafe Structure Abatement Code, exempts residential dwellings, barns and other structures which have historically been a part of a family farm operation from that entire article, which otherwise lets the county condemn, order repaired or demolish unsafe buildings. The farm-structure exemption is not absolute: it lifts only unless an official written complaint based on repeat illicit activities is received from a law enforcement agency having appropriate jurisdiction, so a farm building tied to documented, repeated illegal activity can still be brought under the unsafe-structure process.

Both provisions were adopted as part of broader ordinances: § 21-2 carried forward from Ord. No. 27-97/98 and later amendments, and § 21-17 from Ord. No. 13-2009/10, adopted March 18, 2010.