H 3986 Session 112 (1997-1998)
H 3986 General Bill, By Seithel
Similar(S 63)
A BILL TO AMEND SECTION 5-1-30, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
1976, RELATING TO THE PREREQUISITES TO ISSUANCE OF A CORPORATE CERTIFICATE TO
A PROPOSED MUNICIPALITY, SO AS TO REQUIRE THE AREA SEEKING TO BE INCORPORATED
TO BE CONTIGUOUS, AND TO FURTHER PROVIDE THAT AN AREA IS DEEMED TO BE
CONTIGUOUS IF IT IS INTERRUPTED BY PUBLIC MARSH LANDS OR WATERWAYS, SO LONG AS
THE AREA INCLUDES HIGHLAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PUBLIC MARSH LAND OR
WATERWAY, WHETHER OR NOT THE PUBLIC MARSH LAND OR WATERWAY IS AN ANNEXED PART
OF ANOTHER MUNICIPALITY.
04/10/97 House Introduced and read first time HJ-96
04/10/97 House Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-97
A BILL
TO AMEND SECTION 5-1-30, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS
OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE
PREREQUISITES TO ISSUANCE OF A CORPORATE
CERTIFICATE TO A PROPOSED MUNICIPALITY, SO AS TO
REQUIRE THE AREA SEEKING TO BE INCORPORATED TO
BE CONTIGUOUS, AND TO FURTHER PROVIDE THAT AN
AREA IS DEEMED TO BE CONTIGUOUS IF IT IS
INTERRUPTED BY PUBLIC MARSH LANDS OR
WATERWAYS, SO LONG AS THE AREA INCLUDES
HIGHLAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PUBLIC MARSH
LAND OR WATERWAY, WHETHER OR NOT THE PUBLIC
MARSH LAND OR WATERWAY IS AN ANNEXED PART OF
ANOTHER MUNICIPALITY.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South
Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 5-1-30 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by
Act 7 of 1991, is further amended to read:
"Section 5-1-30. (A) Before issuing a corporate
certificate to a proposed municipality, the Secretary of State shall first
determine:
(1) that the area seeking to be incorporated has a population
density of at least three hundred persons a square mile according to
the latest official United States Census;
(2) that no part of the area is within five miles of the boundary
of an active incorporated municipality; and
(3) that an approved service feasibility study for the proposed
municipality has been filed with and approved by the Secretary of
State; and
(4) that the area seeking to be incorporated is contiguous;
however, an area is deemed to be contiguous if it is interrupted by
public marsh lands or waterways, so long as the area includes
highland on the other side of the public marsh land or waterway,
whether or not the public marsh land or waterway is an annexed part
of another municipality.
(B) When an area seeking incorporation has petitioned
pursuant to Chapter 17 the nearest incorporated municipality to be
annexed to the municipality, and has been refused annexation by the
municipality for six months, or when the population of the area
seeking incorporation exceeds fifteen thousand persons, then the
provision of the five-mile limitation of this section does not apply to
the area.
(C) The five-mile limit does not apply when the
boundaries of the area seeking incorporation are within five miles of
the boundaries of two different incorporated municipalities in two
separate counties other than the county within which the area seeking
incorporation lies, and when the boundaries of the proposed
municipality are more than five miles from the boundaries of the
nearest incorporated municipality that lies within the same county
within which the proposed municipality lies, and when the land area
of the territory seeking incorporation exceeds one-fourth of the land
area of the nearest incorporated municipality.
(D) The population requirements do not apply to areas
bordering on and being within two miles of the Atlantic Ocean and
to all sea islands bounded on at least one side by the Atlantic Ocean,
both of which have a minimum of one hundred fifty dwelling units
and at least an average of one dwelling unit for each three acres of
land within the area and for which petitions for incorporation contain
the signatures of at least fifteen percent of the freeholders and fifty of
the electors of the respective areas seeking incorporation. The
freeholders and electors need not be all different persons.
This section does not apply to those areas which have petitioned to
the Secretary of State before June 25, 1975, or which may be under
adjudication in the courts of this State. The five-mile limit does not
apply to counties with a population according to the latest official
United States Census of less than fifty-one thousand."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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