Charleston, SC Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Article III of Chapter 28, rewritten by Ordinance No. 1996-158 in 1996, opens with council findings that public rights-of-way are an integral part of the public realm that must remain available for public use without undue interference from private interests. Section 28-37 defines an 'encroachment' as any privately owned personal property situated on, affixed to, or overhanging a public right-of-way, splitting the category into permanent encroachments, footings, cornices, balconies, HVAC units, and driveways, and temporary encroachments, non-permanently affixed street furniture, irrigation systems, fences, awnings, and signs.

Section 28-39 bars anyone from placing, affixing, connecting, attaching, fastening, erecting, constructing, or maintaining any encroachment on a public right-of-way without first securing an encroachment agreement. Section 28-41 splits issuing authority: the public works and utilities committee approves permanent encroachments, while the department of public service approves temporary ones, and every application must include an illustration of the encroachment, proof of a Charleston business license, the encroachment fee, and an indemnification agreement. Section 28-40 lays out detailed siting standards: an encroachment generally must sit within six inches of an adjoining wall or, if that is unsuitable, within eighteen inches of the curb, and it cannot come within fifteen feet of a roadway intersection, five feet of a crosswalk or driveway, fifteen feet of a fire hydrant or standpipe, five feet of an emergency call box, or reduce a clear pedestrian passageway below forty-eight inches.

Canopies must clear nine feet from the sidewalk to the canopy structure and eight feet to the valance. Section 28-38 grandfathers any projection that existed on December 11, 1962, as a 'permissive encroachment' that can remain until the city orders its removal, but bars any enlargement. Under § 28-43, the city can order removal on twenty-four hours' notice for right-of-way repairs, remove an encroachment immediately without notice if it poses an immediate danger, and treat any encroachment abandoned, meaning vacated for seven or more consecutive days, as subject to removal at the owner's cost.