Artificial turf in Atlantic Beach, SC, drawn to fit your lot.

Grading, filling or surfacing a lot needs the town's sign-off.

Atlantic Beach is its own town with its own rulebook, separate from North Myrtle Beach. Under Sec. 5.3.320 of the Town of Atlantic Beach Land Management Ordinance (March 2025 version), a zoning permit is required for improving any lot by grading, removing trees, filling or surfacing. Turf means stripping the old surface, shaping the ground and laying a compacted base, so plan on applying.

The application needs the parcel's tax map number, a plat or plot plan, a written description of the work and every property owner's signature (Sec. 5.3.322). For home lots, the town's Development Process Guide (updated August 2025) wants a site plan showing lot coverage and open space. Complete applications are reviewed within 10 business days, with corrections sent back as comments. Commercial and mixed-use sites add a landscape plan and a 20-business-day review.

You don't have to guess first. The guide says you can request a Zoning Determination Letter to confirm what's allowed before starting a project. The Administrator, the Town Manager or a designee, interprets the ordinance (Sec. 5.3.200 and 5.3.201). An appeal of a decision goes to the Board of Zoning Appeals within 15 calendar days (Sec. 5.3.330).

Home lots get a hard-surface budget. Turf isn't on either list.

Houses and duplexes are only allowed in the R2 and MS1R districts, and a house may go in WF1 with a Special Exception, according to the guide. Table 5.3.420A caps impervious surface at 40% of the lot in R2, with at least 55% left as open space. In MS1R the cap is 50%, with at least 40% open space. Find your district on the zoning map linked from the town's Permits, Zoning and Documents page.

The definitions leave turf in the middle. Impervious means a surface that does not absorb or percolate water: buildings, asphalt or concrete, water bodies. Pervious means one that lets air and water through, like earth, oyster shell or gravel, and is not covered by manmade materials. Turf is built to let water through, but it is manmade.

So ask the town in writing whether your turf, over its stone base, counts as pervious, and what product details it wants. Our guide on whether turf counts as impervious lists what to have ready.

Keep the dig to 5,000 square feet or less, and the drainage as it was.

Sec. 5.3.1053 exempts some work from the detailed stormwater standards in Sec. 5.3.1055 to 5.3.1061. One exemption covers work that disturbs no more than 5,000 square feet of land in total and doesn't disrupt existing drainage patterns. Another covers additions or modifications to existing single-family homes. Past 5,000 square feet, the guide says the town reviews a Stormwater Management Plan prepared by a South Carolina professional engineer. Your custom layout shows the turf area, so you know which side of that line you're on.

Flood rules sit on top. The home exemption stays subject to the town's Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance (Exhibit D2 of the ordinance). In a FEMA special flood hazard area, it requires a development permit before work starts, and development includes filling, grading, paving and excavating. Applications go to the Planning Administrator, with a certified plot plan showing the 100-year floodplain for a lot that is, or appears to be, in the floodplain. Ask whether your lot is mapped before the base goes in.

Three sands inside the town limits, and one of them holds water.

The USDA soil survey shows Newhan fine sand toward the ocean, Lakeland sand mid-town and Leon fine sand farther inland (USDA Soil Data Access, point queries inside the town boundary, September 2026). The first two are rated excessively drained. Leon is rated poorly drained.

Newhan is wind-blown sand with shell fragments and very rapid permeability (USDA: Newhan series). Leon's series description puts the water table 6 to 18 inches down for 1 to 4 months in most years (USDA: Leon series). A base that stays dry on the first can sit in water on the second.

The free visit checks which ground you have, and the base is built for it: firm on loose sand, planned around standing water on the wetter ground.

Check the deed, and on the ocean, find the shore protection line.

Sec. 5.3.6 follows S.C. Code § 6-29-1145: a zoning application asks whether a recorded covenant conflicts with the work. If the town knows of one, it won't issue the permit until you show the covenant has been released, and a permit doesn't free you from a covenant. On the town's Restrictive Covenants Affidavit (February 2026), filed with zoning applications, you confirm that no covenants apply or that the work doesn't conflict with them.

On a lot that touches the Atlantic, Sec. 5.3.803 has the shore protection line and the state setback line set before construction, with a fence or barrier at least 3 feet high along the shore protection line. Seaward of that line, altering sand, dunes or vegetation needs a permit from the Administrator (Sec. 5.3.805), and the guide lists a state Critical Area Permit from SCDES for beachfront property. Keep the turf landward of the line and the dune plants where they are.