Off-Grid Living in Horry County, South Carolina

I've spent a while digging into what Horry County, South Carolina actually says about off-grid living, and the short version is: this is a countywide-zoned county, which changes the picture compared to some SC counties that don't zone unincorporated land at all. Here's what I found, dimension by dimension.

Zoning. Horry County has countywide zoning through its Planning and Zoning Department, operating under the county's Zoning Ordinance (Appendix B) and Land Development Regulations (Chapter 18), which the county adopted under the state's Comprehensive Planning Enabling Act (S.C. Code Title 6, Chapter 29). What you can do with a piece of land depends entirely on its zoning district, which the county says you can only nail down using your parcel's tax map number. Also worth flagging: if your land sits inside Myrtle Beach, Conway, North Myrtle Beach, or another municipality, that city's own building/planning department is in charge, not the county.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The county's ordinance actually names tiny homes specifically, permitting them on foundations in at least one mixed residential district and defining a tiny home as a detached single-family dwelling under 750 square feet. Using an RV as a permanent residence on raw land outside a park is not something I found clearly addressed, so that needs a direct call to Planning and Zoning about your specific district.

Building permits. Horry County enforces the state building code through its Code Enforcement/Building Codes Department, and residential plans need to be submitted for review before you build. This is a mandatory, non-negotiable layer regardless of how off-grid you want to go.

Septic, greywater, and wells. I didn't find Horry-County-specific ordinances on any of these three; they fall back to the state framework run by South Carolina's Department of Environmental Services (SCDES, formerly DHEC), covering septic (Regulation 61-56) and wells (Regulations 61-71/61-44). The county's building permit process does require septic or sewer approval before a permit is issued, so the county and state processes are linked even though the county isn't writing its own separate rules here.

Rainwater harvesting. Genuinely unclear. There's a county Stormwater Ordinance in the mix during development review, but I found nothing rain-barrel or cistern specific. Call Planning and Zoning before installing anything substantial.

Full utility disconnection. Not banned outright, but any inhabited structure still has to pass building code inspections and have septic/well approval on file, so going off-grid doesn't mean skipping the permit process.

Bottom line: Horry County's countywide zoning makes this more regulated territory than a no-zoning SC county, and your first move should always be a zoning district check by tax map number before you buy or build.