How many RV sites per acre

The answer, and why there are three numbers

There are three numbers, and they answer different questions. The legal cap is what a code allows: Florida caps RV parks at 25 units per acre of gross site, and Colorado's campground rule caps density at 25 campsites per acre "excluding roads, buildings, and other common use areas" ^{[1, 2]}. The local cap is often lower: Malabar, Florida allows 15 RV sites per gross acre, Coconino County, Arizona 12 per acre, Fannin County, Texas 10 per acre, and Pickens County, South Carolina 4 ^{[7, 8, 9, 4]}. The achieved yield is what a drawn layout reaches once roads, utilities, stormwater and amenities are on the sheet: a development guide (secondary, not a code) puts it at 8 to 12 sites per acre ^[6].

Many states set no state cap. Utah, Arizona, Georgia and Tennessee regulate sanitation and spacing and leave density to local zoning. Michigan sets no numeric cap and limits a campground to its licensed site count (R 325.1556(8)) ^[10]. No state RV park density rule was found for Texas, North Carolina or South Carolina, so their caps come from county and city codes. The state rules are compared side by side in RV park regulations by state.

Gross versus net: the same 25 is not the same cap

A cap counted on gross acreage includes the land that roads, the office, the bathhouse and the stormwater pond take. A cap counted on net acreage excludes it. Florida's text is gross: "The density shall not exceed 25 recreational vehicle units per acre of gross site" ^{[1, 11]}. Colorado's is net, because it excludes "roads, buildings, and other common use areas" (6 CCR 1010-9, s. 5.4) ^[2]. A Colorado plan that reaches 25 on its net campsite area holds fewer sites across the whole tract, so a site data table states which basis it reports.

Local codes use the net basis too. The Town of Parker, Arizona sets a "maximum density of twenty (20) spaces per net acre," with spaces of 1,250 sq ft and 30 ft wide (Town Code 10-11-16) ^[12]. How "gross" is measured can also be written into a local code: Polk County, Florida's density computation counts "all public and institutional land areas (e.g. internal streets, sewer plants, schools, and parks) located within a site, as well as one-half of the right-of-way area for perimeter local streets" ^[13]. That text sits in the county's residential density rule.

Florida adds a time dimension. Once a park is permitted, F.S. 513.1115 supersedes any later county, city or special district rule on lot size, density, separation or setback ^[17]. A town cap like Malabar's governs a new park; it cannot cut the density of one already approved.

Minimum site areas and the arithmetic they allow

The second constraint is the smallest legal site:

The arithmetic shows why the site minimum and the density cap are different limits. One acre is 43,560 sq ft, so a 1,200 sq ft site minimum allows 36 sites before any roads. The Florida cap of 25 per gross acre therefore implies at least about 1,742 sq ft of gross land per site, including roads and amenities ^[1]. Put another way, at the state cap 80 sites need at least 3.2 gross acres and 150 sites at least 6.0 gross acres, and on 20 gross acres the state would permit up to 500 RV units ^[1].

Real sites are also larger than the minimum. A 2026 construction guide (secondary) sizes RV sites from 30 x 50 ft back-in to 45 x 70 ft pull-through ^[22]. Where pads are drawn at those sizes, the pad mix rather than the code minimum sets the land per site; the standards behind each pad type are on the RV park site plan page.

Tract minimums: the acreage a park needs before density

A cap per acre only matters once the tract qualifies. Several codes set a minimum park size:

A parcel under the minimum does not qualify there at any density, so the tract test comes before the yield study.

What real layouts achieve, and what takes the land

The published yield for working layouts is a rule of thumb, and it sits well below the caps: 8 to 12 sites per acre in a development guide (secondary, not a code) ^[6]. What closes the gap between 25 and the achieved yield is drawn on the plan:

• Roads. On an illustrative 200-site plan with roughly 8,000 linear feet of lanes, a 60 ft public road corridor consumes about 11 acres, while a 24 ft private lane consumes about 4.4 acres ^[26]. Which standard the county applies to internal lanes is settled before the loops are drawn.
• Stormwater. In Florida, a project area over 5 acres needs an environmental resource permit, and the stormwater system it permits takes land no site can use ^[27].
• Wastewater. In North Carolina a local health department can approve systems up to 1,500 gpd; above that a PE designs the system, and the drain field or plant takes its own area ^[28]. Pickens County, South Carolina bars individual septic systems per site and requires master-metered utilities ^{[4, 16]}.
• Setbacks and buffers. Pickens County requires a 100 ft perimeter setback ^[4], and Newberry County, South Carolina allows parks by special exception in R2 with 100 ft setbacks ^[29].
• Separation. Colorado requires 10 ft between units, counting awnings as part of the unit, and Callahan County, Texas 25 ft between RVs ^{[2, 30]}. Every foot of separation is land between pads.

Tent and glamping layouts run lower again. A Mendocino County, California campground renewal recorded 73 sites on 65 acres, 1.12 per acre; a Valley County, Idaho campground of yurt and RV sites, approved by conditional use permit, works out to 3.1 units per acre in its first phase if tents count as dwelling units; Tropic, Utah caps glamping at 5 per acre and Garfield County, Utah at 10 ^{[31, 32, 33, 21]}. The glamping site plan and campground site plan pages carry those programs.

From the number to a plan

Density questions end the same way: the parcel, the road standard and the utility path set the count, and the count is only real once it is drawn. A preliminary site plan puts the yield, the density against the cap on its own basis, and the land each constraint takes into one site data table. For resort programs with cabins, park models and phased amenity cores, see RV resort site plans.

State detail for RV parks is on the combo pages for Florida RV parks, Colorado RV parks, Texas RV parks, Arizona RV parks, North Carolina RV parks and Michigan RV parks, with the state context on the Texas, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina pages. The model projects show the caps at work: Polk County, Florida under the gross 25 per acre cap, Bandera County, Texas where wastewater and water set the count, and Chaffee County, Colorado under the net campground cap. For land needs across asset classes, see the acre test, and for design standards in long form, RV park design standards.

How these sources were chosen and when the page is reviewed: how we research.

By Viola Sauer, Principal, Innowave Studio