Loading map…
Regbase

The Data Center Divide

Horry County

Mixed Data Center Policies

South Carolina offers qualifying data centers tax breaks, but investment, job, certification, and facility-size conditions limit access, and an enacted rule bars some large facilities from exemptions. A power rate requires customers to cover needed facilities, provide financial security, and accept long-term minimum charges.

Rating and summary from South Carolina statewide as there are no scored current or future laws outside temporary restrictions for Horry County.

Specific to Horry County only.

pending · Unincorporated areas
Would establish Horry County’s first zoning standards for data centers to address concerns about noise, building scale, and compatibility with surrounding properties, classifying them as conditional or special-exception uses in specified industrial districts (proposed amendment).Horry County Proposed Data Center Zoning Ordinance Amendment

What this means

The proposal would formally allow data centers in industrial districts, reducing uncertainty about where they can be considered. But it adds residential setbacks, building-size limits, and a special-exception review for larger facilities, creating meaningful hurdles for development. The proposed size limits support a modestly negative overall score.

People behind it

  • Listed as the staff member responsible for the Parks and Recreation recognition item.

  • Listed as the staff member responsible for the Code Enforcement Department overview.

  • Listed as the staff member responsible for the Goretown Fire Project and Aynor Recreation Center funding resolutions.

Show 14 more peopleShow fewer people

  • Prepared the decision memorandum and recommended the ordinance authorizing the lease of office space to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

  • Listed as the staff member responsible for the airport general aviation terminal lease ordinance.

  • Prepared the decision memoranda and proposed the zoning amendments concerning data centers, health care facilities, PA1 uses, commercial centers, and zoning-map amendments.

  • Planning Director who cleared the proposed zoning amendments and was listed as responsible for several of the zoning ordinance items.

  • Prepared the impact-fee decision memorandum and proposed the updated development impact-fee ordinance.

  • Cleared the impact-fee decision memorandum as Director of Regulatory Services.

  • Directed to conduct the impact-fee studies and identified in the proposed ordinance as recommending adoption of the capital improvements plan and impact fees.

  • Authorized by the proposed lease ordinances to negotiate and execute the DNR and airport lease agreements.

  • Requested renewal of the lease for approximately 3,450 square feet of office space at the old Aynor fire station.

  • Requested approval of the airport lease agreements with TVPX Trust, Falcon Flight Academy, Blue Horizon Aviation, and Leadership in Flight Training Academy.

  • Requested to lease office and storage space within the Myrtle Beach International Airport general aviation terminal.

  • Requested to lease office space within the Grand Strand Airport general aviation terminal.

  • Requested to lease office and storage space within the Grand Strand Airport general aviation terminal.

  • Requested to lease storage space within the Myrtle Beach International Airport general aviation terminal.

Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements11

  • Data center buildings must be at least 200 feet from any residentially used or zoned lot, measured from the building to the residential district line.

  • Cooling, ventilation, generators, and other power-supply or operating equipment for a data center must be at least 300 feet from any residentially used or zoned lot.

  • If the required 200-foot building separation is not met, the landscape buffer along the residential property line must increase by 50% in width and plantings; the separation may not be less than 100 feet.

  • If the required 300-foot equipment separation is not met, the landscape buffer along the residential property line must increase by 50% in width and plantings; the separation may not be less than 150 feet.

  • Where a data center or its equipment abuts a residentially used or zoned lot, a masonry wall at least 10 feet high must be installed along the shared property line inside the required landscape buffer. The wall does not replace the required separation distances.

  • Data center buildings in the Limited Industrial (LI) and Limited Manufacturing and Industrial (MA1) districts are limited to 80,000 square feet of gross floor area.

  • Data center buildings in the General Manufacturing and Industrial (MA2), Heavy/Intense Manufacturing and Industrial (MA3), and Heavy Industrial (HI) districts are limited to 200,000 square feet of gross floor area unless a special exception is obtained.

  • Data centers larger than 200,000 square feet in the MA2, MA3, and HI districts require a special exception under the zoning ordinance.

  • The proposed off-street parking standards require data centers to provide parking based on employee or floor-area criteria, including one space per two employees on the largest shift and, as listed in the amended table, one space per 4,000 square feet of gross floor area.

  • Updated development impact fees apply to new development in unincorporated Horry County, including fees for parks and recreation, public safety, and solid-waste facilities; fees are assessed when a building permit or, if no building permit is required, a development permit is issued.

  • A building or development permit may not be issued for covered new development unless applicable impact fees are paid in full, subject to stated exemptions, offsets, credits, or approved individual assessments.

Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions6

  • The ordinance formally adds data centers to the industrial use chart, allowing them to be reviewed under specified industrial zoning classifications rather than being treated as an undefined use. The measure limits building size to 80,000 square feet in LI and MA1 districts and 200,000 square feet in MA2, MA3, and HI districts. The proposed building-size limits

  • Facilities larger than 200,000 square feet may pursue a special exception in MA2, MA3, and HI districts, creating a regulatory path for larger data centers instead of imposing an absolute size prohibition. Facilities exceeding 200,000 square feet may obtain a special exception

  • The parking standard for data centers is based on two employees on the largest shift, rather than a floor-area ratio, which can reduce required parking for facilities with relatively few employees. The data-center parking standard

  • The ordinance expressly recognizes data-center accessory infrastructure, including utility lines, electrical substations, pump stations, water towers, cooling and other environmental equipment, fire-suppression systems, backup power, redundant communications, and security systems, when located on the same tract or a unified assemblage of adjacent parcels. The listed data-center accessory uses

  • The siting rules provide an alternative when the preferred separation distances cannot be met: building and equipment may be closer to residential property if landscape-buffer widths and plantings are increased by 50%, subject to minimum separations of 100 feet for buildings and 150 feet for operating equipment. The reduced-distance alternatives

  • The definition expressly includes crypto-mining facilities within the data-center use category, providing regulatory recognition for that type of operation. The definition includes crypto-mining facilities

Sources

Data provided by Regbase · Cookie preferences · Report missing data