South Dakota

Buying Land in Custer County, South Dakota

Southern Black Hills' Custer County, seat Custer, sits alongside Custer State Park and hosts the Black Hills National Forest headquarters -- yet, unlike what a buyer might expect near this much tourism, the county has confirmed no adopted zoning ordinance and no adopted building code. Land use here runs instead on a subdivision ordinance, a septic ordinance, and state trade codes.

No Adopted Zoning or Building Code

Case-by-case / verify locally

Custer County's own Planning and Economic Development page states plainly that the county currently has no zoning ordinance and has not adopted a building code -- notable given the county's location in one of South Dakota's most visited tourism corridors. Instead, land division and use are governed by County Ordinance #2 (Subdivision and Land Use, effective 2007), and state electrical, plumbing, and septic codes apply. This means there's no zoning district to check for a given parcel, but subdivision, setback, and wastewater rules still apply and should be confirmed with the Planning Office before you build.

Ordinance #2 Sets Real Setbacks Despite No Zoning

Could not confirm

Even without zoning, Custer County Ordinance #2 sets concrete building setback requirements tied to parcel size: 50 feet from all property lines on parcels of three acres or more, 25 feet on parcels between one-half and three acres, and a required survey to establish a 10-foot setback on parcels smaller than one-half acre. Confirm which tier applies to a specific parcel and whether any subsequent amendment has changed these figures.

Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park Proximity

Generally favorable

Custer County hosts the Black Hills National Forest headquarters in the city of Custer (the forest spans over 1.25 million acres across South Dakota and Wyoming), and the county sits alongside Custer State Park, a 71,000-acre state park with one of the largest publicly owned bison herds in the country. This drives real tourism and recreation-land value and demand in the county, along with active cabin and second-home market interest, but public forest and park land itself is not available for private purchase -- confirm any parcel's actual boundary against national forest or state park land before assuming adjacency.

No zoning, no building code -- but real subdivision and septic rules

It would be easy to assume a county this central to Black Hills tourism has detailed zoning in place -- Custer County is a documented exception to that assumption. The county's Planning and Economic Development office states directly that Custer County currently has no zoning ordinance and has not adopted a building code, though the state's electrical, plumbing, and septic codes still apply. What does govern land use here is County Ordinance #2 (Subdivision and Land Use, effective January 2007), which regulates how land can be divided, sets building setbacks tiered by parcel size, and includes separate provisions addressing mobile home parks and courts and the physical conditions for placing a factory-built home outright -- see our dedicated manufactured-homes page for those specifics. A building permit is still required for new construction even without an adopted code; our building-on-raw-land page covers that permit process and fee structure in full.

Septic (on-site wastewater) is handled through the county's own On-Site Wastewater Treatment System regulations, administered by the Planning Office rather than a separate environmental health department: a permit is required for installing, modifying, extending, replacing, or relocating a system, only state-certified installers may do the work, and the minimum lot size for a septic system is one acre. This is a real, actively-enforced local ordinance, distinct from the state's general ARSD 74:53 design standards covered on the South Dakota hub. Because there's no zoning ordinance to constrain use type, the subdivision and septic ordinances function as the county's primary land-use control tools -- confirm both with the Planning Office (Terri-Ann Kester, Planning Director) before purchasing or developing a parcel; our building-on-raw-land page walks through the full septic site-evaluation and permit sequence.

A Black Hills tourism and recreation county, with real market pressure

Custer County's identity is inseparable from the Black Hills. The Black Hills National Forest -- more than 1.25 million acres spanning South Dakota and Wyoming -- has its headquarters in the city of Custer, and Custer State Park, a 71,000-acre state park renowned for its granite peaks, lakes, and one of the largest publicly owned bison herds in the country (over 1,400 animals, drawing crowds for the annual Buffalo Roundup), sits within the county's borders. That combination makes Custer County a year-round tourism and outdoor-recreation destination, not simply a rural agricultural county, and it shows up in the local land market: real estate coverage of the wider Black Hills region describes active growth pressure toward cabin and retreat development, with the Black Hills & Badlands region ranking first in South Dakota by total land value listed for sale as of 2025.

For a buyer, the practical implication is twofold. First, proximity to public land (national forest or state park) can be a real amenity driving value, but it is not something you own -- confirm a parcel's actual surveyed boundary against Forest Service or Game, Fish and Parks land rather than assuming 'borders the park' language in a listing. Second, given the tourism draw and the absence of zoning, don't assume neighboring land uses will stay static -- short-term rental, cabin, and second-home development can appear on adjacent unzoned parcels in ways that a zoning ordinance would otherwise constrain in a more heavily regulated county. Confirm current subdivision and wastewater rules, and consider how the lack of zoning affects your own plans and your neighbors' potential ones, before closing.

What we could and couldn't confirm

The 'no zoning ordinance / no building code' status is drawn directly from Custer County's own Planning and Economic Development webpage as of the access date above; this is a policy a county could change by future ordinance, so confirm current status directly with the Planning Office rather than relying solely on this page. Black Hills regional land-market commentary (cabin development activity, 2025 median pricing, regional land-value ranking) comes from real estate industry sources rather than a government dataset and should be treated as general market color, not a precise, sourced statistic.

Verify directly with: the Custer County Planning and Economic Development Office for subdivision, setback, and septic-permit questions, and the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources for statewide septic design standards

Who to Call Before Buying Land in Custer County

Custer County's Planning Office handles both subdivision/land-use administration and septic permitting directly, so we list it under two categories above rather than a separate environmental-health department, which we could not confirm exists independently. We could not verify a direct phone extension for Planning Director Terri-Ann Kester beyond the main Planning Office line listed here.

Planning & Zoning

Custer County Planning and Economic Development Office

Subdivision and land-use questions under Ordinance #2, building permits, septic (OWTS) permits, and confirmation of the county's current no-zoning status.

Phone: (605) 673-8100Email: tkester@custercountysd.comOfficial website →

Septic / Onsite Wastewater