Artificial turf in Surfside Beach, SC, planned around your lot's impervious cap.

Your district sets how much of the lot can be hard cover.

Surfside Beach writes its limits into the zoning code. In R-1, buildings may cover 30 percent of a lot and all impervious cover 40 percent. R-2 allows 30 and 45 percent, and R-3 allows 40 and 50 percent (Town Code, Sec. 17-312, 17-322 and 17-333). The town's District Regulations sheet, updated 8 February 2022, lists the same caps beside each district's minimum lot: 9,000 square feet in R-1, 6,000 in R-2 and 3,600 for a detached home in R-3.

Impervious coverage is all the flat ground on the lot with an impervious surface. The code defines that as land compacted or covered so it is highly resistant to water soaking in, and names roofs, driveways, sidewalks and parking lots (Sec. 17-007). On a 6,000-square-foot R-2 lot, the cap is 2,700 square feet in all. A house, a drive and a patio can use most of that before any turf goes down.

Artificial turf is not named there, or in the district and landscaping sections. How the town reads a packed base under draining turf decides how much room your yard has. Our guide to whether turf counts as impervious lists the product and base details to bring.

Add up what you have, then ask one question.

Find your district on the zoning map linked from the Planning, Building & Zoning page. Add up the roof footprint, driveway, walks, patio and any pad. Take that from your district's cap. What is left is the most new hard cover the lot can take if the town counts turf against it.

Then ask the department how the proposed turf and base will count. Its line is 843-913-6341. The regulations sheet also prints 843-913-6111, which is the Town Hall number. Bring the layout, the turf's drainage data and the base detail, ask for the answer in writing, and keep it with your estimate.

At the free visit, we measure the hard surfaces already there and the area you want to change. The layout you approve shows both, so the office can check the sum.

Your lot has a tree minimum, and a big tree needs a permit.

Every residential lot has a minimum: five trees totalling 60 inches across in R-1, five totalling 40 inches in R-2, and three totalling 30 inches in R-3, all measured 2 feet above the ground. The trees already standing count toward it (Article VII, Sec. 17-723).

Taking out a tree over 8 inches across needs a no-fee zoning permit first. Smaller trees need none (Sec. 17-723.2). The town's tree removal application asks you to flag or mark each tree before the inspection, allows the work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday, and bars leaving debris on site overnight.

If a tree stands where you want a green or a dog run, drawing around it is often simpler. Our layout marks each tree. Where one has to come out, get the permit before we start.

A new tree and landscaping ordinance is part way through council.

Ordinance 26-1007 would replace Article VII. Council accepted first reading with changes on 10 August 2026, by a 6-1 vote, and agreed to review the fines and enforcement before second reading (council minutes). It was not on the 24 August or 8 September agendas. As of 12 September 2026, it is not law, and the final text may change.

The draft posted for first reading goes further than today's code. A permit would be needed to remove any tree 3 inches or more across, measured 4.5 feet up. Where an activity over 800 square feet needs a zoning permit, 20 to 50 percent of the lot would have to be landscaped, rising with lot size, with at least 20 percent of that in the front yard. The draft counts pervious artificial turf as landscape material.

Today's code already sets landscaped shares by district: 50 percent in R-1, 40 in R-2 and 20 in R-3. It defines landscaping as grass, ground covers, shrubs, flower beds, vines, hedges and trees, and does not mention turf (Sec. 17-701 and 17-702). If turf would cover most of your front yard, ask whether that share applies and whether turf counts.

Keep turf landward of the shore protection line.

On a lot that touches the Atlantic, the town sets a shore protection line. It runs 20 feet landward of the rear property line or 20 feet landward of the crest of the primary dune, whichever is farther from the ocean (Article VIII, Sec. 17-802).

Seaward of that line, you need a permit from the code enforcement official before you move sand or alter vegetation (Sec. 17-807 and 17-808). The town may let owners plant nonnative vegetation between the landward trough of the dune and the line, but not nonnative grass turf or covering (Sec. 17-803). So on an oceanfront lot, our layout stops at the line and the dune stays as it is.