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

, on county owned property or easements," is the county's general encroachment-permit rule for its rights-of-way, easements and other county-owned property, which covers sidewalks. " If an object shows up without that written permission, subsection (b) gives the county administrator authority to notify the property owner, verbally or by first-class mail to the owner's last-known address, that the object must come down within 10 days or the county will remove it itself; the administrator can extend that 10-day window if the owner genuinely cannot comply in time.

Subsection (c) requires every deed by which the county accepts an easement to include a clause barring the grantor from placing a prohibited object on that easement without the same written permission. Subsection (d) sets the criminal exposure: anyone convicted of violating Section 19-5 faces a jail sentence and/or a monetary fine up to the jurisdictional limits of the magistrate court, and each day the violation continues is treated as a separate offense. Because the section applies to "any property owned by the county or any easement owned by the county," it functions as Aiken County's encroachment-permit gate for private uses of sidewalk and road rights-of-way, distinct from the state-level encroachment permits SCDOT separately requires for access onto state highways as part of subdivision plat approval.