ARC is All About That Green

On By SIPOAIn ARC

Synthetic Turf Lawn for Raised Patios

Over the years, various Property Owners, contractors, and synthetic turf salesmen and manufactures have presented many requests and a plethora of information to the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) in hopes of having synthetic turf approved for use within the Seabrook Island Development (SID). While the multiple ARC members have seen and understood the desire to use synthetic turf in the past, setting the requirements, restrictions, and conditions to use proved difficult.

The ARC Policies and Procedures sub-committee have been meeting for months to review and refine the Policies and Procedures. During that review, one topic was synthetic turf – Do we allow it? If so, where, how much, etc.? After much discussion, the following was presented to the ARC for review. On May 5, 2026, this was approved by the ARC to be submitted to the Board of Directors, and was approved by the Board on May 18, 2026.

While we continue the process of updating the Policies and Procedures, this language will be referred to as Appendix T, and it will be found in the back of the Policies and Procedures document, which is available on the SIPOA website. Once the Policies and Procedures revisions are complete, this language will be incorporated into the document and will no longer be an Appendix.

If you have questions about the usage of synthetic turf for a future project, please contact the Architectural Review office at (843) 203-6464 or arc@sipoa.org.

APPENDIX T: SYNTHETIC TURF LAWN FOR RAISED PATIOS

Synthetic Turf Lawn for Raised Patios: Synthetic turf lawns are permitted in limited circumstances.

  • Synthetic turf lawn areas are to be located at the rear of the property, may not extend beyond the sides of the house or into the setbacks at the sides or rear of the house, and are not visible from the street.
  • The synthetic turf lawn area is to be elevated to a minimum of 18” above the average surrounding grade of the turf area.
  • Synthetic turf lawn is to be no more than 1% of the highland area of the lot.
  • Synthetic turf lawn is to be bordered on all exposed sides with a continuous, solid, opaque wall constructed of approved materials consistent with the design of the house and capped with a complimentary coping.
  • The pile of the synthetic turf is to be a minimum of 1.75” high with a thatch base.
  • Plantings shall be required to soften the appearance of the walls of the raised area, help it blend with the surrounding yard, and reduce visibility from the neighboring properties.