Current Status Bill Number:1184 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:Senate Introduced Date:19980408 Primary Sponsor:Ravenel All Sponsors:Ravenel Drafted Document Number:pt\1862dw.98 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 25 HJ Date of Last Amendment:19980521 Subject:Municipal corporation, corporate certificate to proposed area; freeholder references deleted; Annexation
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
______ ________ _______________________________________ _______ ____________
House 19980528 Introduced, read first time, 25 HJ
referred to Committee
Senate 19980527 Read third time, sent to House
Senate 19980521 Amended, read second time,
ordered to third reading
with notice of general amendments
Senate 19980521 Committee amendment adopted
Senate 19980422 Committee report: Favorable with 11 SJ
amendment
Senate 19980408 Introduced, read first time, 11 SJ
referred to Committee
View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.
Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT ADOPTED AND AMENDED
May 21, 1998
S. 1184
S. Printed 5/21/98--S.
Read the first time April 8, 1998.
TO AMEND SECTION 5-1-30, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE PREREQUISITES TO THE ISSUANCE OF A CORPORATE CERTIFICATE TO AN AREA SEEKING INCORPORATION OF A MUNICIPALITY, SO AS TO DELETE REFERENCES TO FREEHOLDERS; AND TO AMEND SECTION 5-1-40, RELATING TO THE PETITION REQUIRED TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE BY THOSE PERSONS DESIRING TO INCORPORATE A MUNICIPALITY, SO AS TO DELETE REFERENCES TO FREEHOLDERS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 5-1-30 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 5-1-30. 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 proposed to be incorporated is contiguous. Contiguity is not destroyed by an intervening navigable waterway or saltwater marshland, whether or not the navigable waterway or saltwater marshland has been previously incorporated or annexed by another municipality. The incorporation or annexation of a navigable waterway or saltwater marshland does not preclude the navigable waterway or saltwater marshland from subsequently being used by another municipality to establish contiguity for purposes of an incorporation or annexation provided that the distance from highland to highland of the area being incorporated or annexed is not greater than one-half mile.
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.
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.
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. Section 5-1-40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 5-1-40. Except as otherwise provided by law, the citizens of any proposed municipality in this State, desiring to be incorporated, shall file with the Secretary of State their petition for that purpose, setting out the corporate limits proposed for the municipality and the number of inhabitants therein and signed by fifty qualified electors thereof and fifteen percent of the freeholders who reside within the proposed municipality."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.