Hardscaping and landscaping on Folly Beach.

Hard surfaces are capped at 35 percent. On a one or two family lot, the city's zoning ordinance limits impervious surface to 35 percent of the lot's high ground. Decks, porches, patios, pools and paved areas all count. Up to two gravel driveways, each no wider than fifteen feet and built without a compactible subbase, may be exempted from that total.

Driveways have to be pervious. The same ordinance says residential driveways and parking are to be built of pervious materials with no compactible subbase, and a gravel driveway needs a landscape border set flush with it or above it. That rules out the plain concrete slab most people picture, and it changes the base we build under pavers.

The ocean side has a line you do not cross. In the Dune Management Area all development keeps a minimum setback of forty feet from the perpetual easement line, the landward edge of the federal beach renourishment project, or from the state's baseline where no easement line exists. Nothing unauthorized may be placed on a public right-of-way or a beach access either: no fence, no planting, no structure.

A fence needs a building permit, and stops at six feet. In the residential districts the zoning ordinance holds fences and walls to six feet, measured from the existing grade. Chain link and metal-slat fencing are prohibited in a front yard, the finished side faces out, and no fence may block a natural drainage flow.

A fence taller than two and a half feet within twenty feet of a public right-of-way needs an evergreen shrub for every five feet of frontage, planted on the side facing it. The permit, which a retaining wall and a pool need too, is pulled by the owner who lives there or by a contractor licensed in South Carolina.

Lights go dark for the turtles. From May 1 to October 31 no artificial light may illuminate the beach. Decorative and recreational lights that can be seen from the beach are shielded or switched off, and floodlights are not allowed on new work where they would show from the sand.

Rules checked in October 2026 against: City of Folly Beach code, Sec. 166.05-03 (impervious limit) · City of Folly Beach code, Sec. 166.06-11 (driveways) · City of Folly Beach code, Sec. 166.04-04 (Dune Management Area) · City of Folly Beach code, Sec. 166.09 (fences and walls) · City of Folly Beach code, Sec. 150.005 (permits) · City of Folly Beach code, Sec. 151.48 (beach lighting). Boards and councils change them, so we confirm the current text for your address before quoting.