Artificial lawns on the Grand Strand, sized to your lot's hard-surface limit.

Find your district’s limit before you size the lawn.

In North Myrtle Beach, how much of your lot can be hard surface depends on its zoning district. As of July 2026, the city’s zoning code allows no more than 40 percent in R-1 and 45 percent in R-1A. For a single-family house, its district tables allow 50 percent in R-1B, R-2 and R-3, and 60 percent in R-2A and R-2B.

An overlay can change that number. The R-1H historic low-density overlay is for parts of R-1 where most lots are smaller than the standard R-1 lot. On an R-1H lot the limit is 50 percent, and every other R-1 standard still applies. Ask the city for your lot’s district and any overlay on it before you count anything.

Turf stays off that count only if it passes the city’s pervious test. If it doesn’t, it counts as impervious, “regardless of material type or labeling.” Our North Myrtle Beach page walks through each part of the test.

So add up the house, driveway, patio and pool deck, leaving out the pool basin, which the city doesn’t count. Then add the lawn as if it were hard surface. If that puts you over your limit, the turf and its base have to pass the test, and you are responsible for keeping them draining over time. If it doesn’t, ask the city in writing whether the lawn still has to pass.

When council adopted the test, staff said it “would only affect permits if the 40 percent pervious ratio was exceeded” (council minutes, 6 October 2025). That is the R-1 figure. The minutes don’t mention the 45, 50 or 60 percent districts, so get the city’s answer for yours.

Keep your district’s share of the lot pervious.

Inside Myrtle Beach city limits, the residential zoning table sets how much of each lot must stay pervious. As of February 2026, that is 50 percent in the R-5, R-7, R-8, R-10 and R-15 single-family districts. A single-family house in RMM, RMH or RMV needs 25 percent. The IR row gives no figure, but the code says such a requirement “may be provided in other applicable sections,” so ask what applies there too.

Grass counts on the pervious side. Turf doesn’t appear in the city’s definitions. A pervious surface is “any material that permits full or partial absorption of stormwater or surface water directly into the ground,” and “stone, shell or gravel surfacing” counts as impervious coverage. Turf goes down over a base, so the base matters as much as the turf.

Before you size the lawn, ask Myrtle Beach Planning and Zoning in writing how the turf and its base count toward your minimum. Take the product sheet and a drawing of the base. Our Myrtle Beach page explains the two kinds of ground under the city, which shape that base.

Plan the lawn around the oaks, cedars and magnolias.

On a lot with one single-family house, Myrtle Beach’s tree rules cover significant and landmark trees. A live oak, white oak, eastern red cedar, southern magnolia or bald cypress is significant once its trunk is 4 inches across, measured 4.5 feet above the ground. Landmark trees are bigger, such as a live oak or white oak of 25 inches.

Lifting the grass may need a permit. The code asks for a clearing/grubbing permit before “any site clearing or vegetation alteration, other than mowing,” and each clearing, grubbing or grading application needs a tree protection zone plan. It doesn’t say whether stripping a lawn counts, so ask Construction Services before work is scheduled.

That zone runs from the trunk out to the dripline or to half the tree’s height, whichever is greater, and generally 18 to 24 inches deep. Grading, filling, ditching and storage inside it are prohibited. Any soil added under a canopy has to be a loamy mix, and the plan protects your neighbor’s trees as well as yours.

At the free visit, show us each of those trees near the lawn, including any just over the fence. The layout is then drawn around each zone.

Check for a big live oak, too.

Horry County’s zoning code exempts individual single-family and duplex houses from its landscape, buffer and tree rules, with one exception: “the Live Oak Protections.” The code says those apply “to any property within Horry County including single family residential.” If your lot is inside a city or town, ask the county and the city which tree rules reach it.

A specimen live oak is one 24 inches or more across at breast height. It is unlawful to injure one or cause its removal unless the county authorizes it, through a variance or, in limited cases, the zoning administrator. Any property with one, single-family lots included, must submit a tree survey.

So if a live oak that size stands near the lawn, ask the county zoning office whether your work needs that survey before it is scheduled. Show us the tree at the free visit so the layout can work around it. Our Carolina Forest and Forestbrook pages cover the drainage features to mark as well.