Kershaw County Capped New Home Permits. Why Lugoff Buyers Haven't Felt It Yet

Say you buy an acre off a back road in Lugoff and sign with a builder. In unincorporated Kershaw County, your house now needs one more thing before work can start. It needs a slot under the county's residential permit cap. Slots are handed out first come, first served within each category, in six-month cycles. If your category fills, your project goes on a public waitlist.

That's a real new step, and the first cycle ends October 31. But the cap itself has turned out to be the gentlest of the growth rules Kershaw County passed over the last 16 months. The rules around it are the ones changing what gets built in Lugoff, and how much it costs.

The cap landed close to the old pace

The Kershaw County Council adopted the Building Permit Allocation System 5-2 on May 12, 2026. Council members Derek Shoemake, Ben Connell, Danny Catoe, Brant Tomlinson and Sammy Tucker voted yes. Russell Brazell and Jimmy Jones voted no. The Kershaw County Current reported that Shoemake called it the first system of its kind adopted by a South Carolina county. It took effect May 13.

At first reading in April, Shoemake told council the county had historically issued about 500 residential permits a year. He put forward a 30% cut as his own recommendation. Council members asked to see other options, including a 20% cut. The Current laid out the math discussed that night:

1. Keep the historical pace: about 500 permits a year
2. Cut 30%: about 350 a year
3. Cut 40%: about 300 a year

The first cycle ran from May 13 through October 31, 2026. It allowed 219 Category A permits, which covers single-family homes, manufactured homes, and duplexes through quadplexes. Of those, 88 were for major subdivisions and 131 for building outside them.

Here's our own arithmetic, not a county figure. If a cycle of about five and a half months holds 219 permits, a full year at that rate comes to roughly 470. That's much closer to the old 500 pace than to the 350 floated in April. A 30% cut would have meant about 175 permits for a six-month stretch.

Midsummer showed room to spare

Planning and Zoning Director Zack Hoover built an online tracker that shows how many permits have been allocated, applied for, issued and are left. It refreshes every Monday. The Current reported that as of July 6, 66% of Category A permits for the cycle were still open. That was 59% inside major subdivisions and 70% outside them. Hoover described the pace this way:

"There hasn't been a rush from the developers in these major subdivisions. It's kind of on par with what we've always been seeing."

He did say the major-subdivision cap could fill, since only a handful of those developments are active. He was less sure about the permits outside subdivisions. So the category most likely to tighten was the one a Lugoff buyer meets through a builder's subdivision. The category a person building on their own land uses had the most room.

Council can raise, keep or adjust the caps after six months, using the tracker data. If you're planning a build, the live Building Permit Allotment Tracker is the place to check the numbers for the cycle that starts after October 31.

The rules that change what gets built

The permit cap gets the headlines. The rules around it decide what kind of house can go where, and what it costs to build. Several came first, and Lugoff, which sits in unincorporated Kershaw County, falls under all of them.

South Carolina Public Radio reported at the time that buyers of new property would carry the impact fee. The county's impact fee page links the ordinance and the study behind it. The fee for a specific lot should come from the county, not from a 2025 news story. The first-reading package also proposed design standards for homes in major subdivisions, open-space requirements and sidewalk requirements.

The rules add up in a predictable way. A larger minimum lot means more land per house. An impact fee adds a cost to every new home. Design, open-space and sidewalk standards add cost to subdivision homes. The 80% set-aside favors subdivisions that already have approved site plans, so the newest projects start further back in line. None of this depends on the cap filling up.

The county says it's trying to catch up on infrastructure. In March 2025, council awarded M.B. Kahn Waterworks a $16.4 million contract to expand the county's wastewater treatment plant by 1 million gallons per day. Jonathan Proctor, who chairs the Planning and Zoning Commission, put it plainly in the Current's coverage of the April debate: "We've been told the county is 10 to 20 years behind in infrastructure. You've got to start somewhere, and this is a start."

Who gains if the cap starts to bind

Right now the cap has room. That could change if demand picks up or council lowers the number. Both sides of the April debate described who would feel it, and the Current reported their arguments in detail.

Ashleigh Rabon, whose family owns FJ Rabon Construction in Lugoff, told the Planning and Zoning Commission that people who own land and pay taxes on it could find they can't build if permits run out. Planning Commissioner Heather Dykes warned the system could favor larger builders over smaller local contractors and families building on private land. In a letter to council, Alex James, CEO of the Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina, argued that communities with permit caps ended up protecting "the property values for those who already owned."

Shoemake argued the opposite risk was bigger. "My worry is not, are we doing too much?" he told the Current. "My worry is, are we doing enough and have we waited too long?"

Both sides agree on how it works. When new supply is limited, homes that already exist face less competition from new ones. So a binding cap would favor people who already own in Lugoff, and anyone whose project is already approved. It would weigh most on buyers who planned to build on raw land. As of July, that pressure hadn't arrived.

Questions to ask before you sign in Lugoff

If you're thinking about new construction or land in unincorporated Kershaw County, these questions follow straight from the rules above:

1. Is the lot in a major subdivision or outside one? Each draws from a different permit pool, and they were filling at different rates in July.
2. Does the subdivision have an approved site plan? That decides whether it competes for the reserved 80% of major-subdivision permits.
3. Has the builder applied for or received a permit in the current cycle? Ask for a specific answer, and compare it against the county tracker.
4. What impact fee applies to this lot, and who pays it? Get the number in writing and check it against the county's fee documents.
5. Does the lot meet the current minimum lot size? Have the county confirm it before you close on land you plan to build on.

This is general information about local rules, not legal or financial advice. Confirm how any ordinance applies to your property with the county and the right professional.

A few quick answers

Does buying an existing home in Lugoff use up a permit? The cap applies to new residential building permits. A resale home is already built, so buying one doesn't come out of the allocation.

Do manufactured homes count? Yes. Manufactured homes fall under Category A along with single-family homes and small multiplexes.

What about an accessory apartment or mother-in-law suite? Accessory dwellings share a combined category with multifamily units. Shoemake said combining them gave the county flexibility if one type went unused. As of July, that category had just one application.

If you're weighing land or new construction in Lugoff and want help reading the permit tracker or asking a builder the right questions, the team at Half Moon Realty works with land, manufactured homes and new builds in Kershaw County every week. Reach out and we'll go through your lot or contract with you before anything gets signed.