York County, SC Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)
Key Facts
- District name
- Baxter Village Traditional Neighborhood (BV)
- Minimum project size
- 80 acres (§ 155.146)
- Standard height cap
- 50 feet
- Neighborhood center/employment height
- Up to 80 feet
- Max impervious surface
- 100% of lot (§ 155.153(G)(14))
- Detached home setbacks
- 10 ft front, 1 ft side, 30 ft rear
Summary
York County's Baxter Village Traditional Neighborhood District (BV) functions as the county's design-guide zoning district. Section 155.153(G) requires main entrances to face a street or square, caps height at 50 feet, 80 feet in the neighborhood center, and allows up to 100% impervious surface in exchange for pedestrian-oriented block, street, and civic-space design.
All buildings, except accessory structures, will have their main entrance opening onto a street, square, courtyard, or park. ... Building height will be measured as the vertical distance from the highest finished grade at the street frontage, up to the eaves or the highest level of a (flat) roof. Heights of structures and buildings will be as specified in the following lot development standards. Otherwise, heights will not exceed 50 feet, except in the neighborhood center and on employment campus lots where heights shall not exceed 80 feet. ... The maximum impervious surface ratio on a lot in the BV District is 100%.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: 2026 S-49: Supplement contains: Local legislation current through Ord. 3925, passed 6-16-25).
Full Breakdown
146. 153(G) requires every building except accessory structures to face its main entrance onto a street, square, courtyard, or park, allows stoops, open colonnades, and open porches to encroach into required setbacks, and caps building height at 50 feet everywhere in the district except the neighborhood center and employment campus lots, where structures may reach 80 feet. The district also drops the usual bufferyard requirements and permits impervious surface coverage up to 100% of a lot, trading conventional yard and buffer standards for pedestrian-oriented block, street, and civic-space design instead.
147, locks in specific architectural dimensions: a colonnade must clear at least ten feet at the sidewalk and be built at least five feet back from the curb, a front porch must be at least six feet deep and 12 feet wide, and bikeways connecting blocks must be paved and at least eight feet wide. 153(H) then set the actual build-to lines; for example, a detached home lot's front setback is a ten-foot minimum with side setbacks of one foot each, ten feet cumulative, and a 30-foot rear setback, or five feet where the rear lot line is screened.
Violations & Fines
Development that doesn't match the BV District's design and dimensional standards, entrance orientation, height, setbacks, or the architectural minimums in § 155.147, is enforced through the county's general zoning penalty. Under § 155.9999, noncompliance is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 per day, and the Zoning Administrator or County Attorney can pursue court action to compel compliance or halt construction that doesn't conform to the approved BV site plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does York County have a downtown or village design code?
How tall can a building be in the Baxter Village district?
Are there minimum design standards for porches and colonnades in Baxter Village?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in York County
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