Dorchester County, SC Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

7(i) of the County's Zoning and Land Development Standards (Ordinance No. 04-13, effective October 1, 2004) confines billboards to the rights-of-way of expressways or to land within fifty feet of an expressway right-of-way, and even that off-right-of-way land must carry Commercial General or Industrial zoning. Vertical stacking of billboard faces is banned outright, and wherever a billboard stands it must be the only freestanding sign allowed on that lot of record. Dimensionally, a billboard face must measure either 12 feet by 25 feet or 14 feet by 48 feet, with up to 128 additional square feet allowed for cut-out or extension pieces.

Height is capped at 40 feet, rising to as much as 70 feet above grade only where the sign sits next to an elevated roadway, and the bottom edge of the sign must clear at least 15 feet above finished grade. Spacing rules keep billboards from clustering: no billboard may stand within 1,000 linear feet of another sign on the same side of the road, or within 500 feet of one on the opposite side or an intersecting road. A billboard also cannot sit closer to a property or right-of-way line than the setback that would apply to an accessory or primary structure on that lot.

Faces are limited to two, mounted back-to-back at no more than a 45-degree angle apart, and any support structure erected or replaced after July 1, 1990 must use a modern mono-pole design finished in earth tones. 6, an applicant must submit dimensions, a site plat, lighting output in lumens, and total project cost before a billboard can go up.