Current Status Bill Number:3986 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19970410 Primary Sponsor:Seithel All Sponsors:Seithel Drafted Document Number:pt\1157dw.97 Companion Bill Number:63 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 25 HJ Subject:Municipality, proposed; corporate certificate, incorporated area to be contiguous; annexation, political subdivisions
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
______ ________ _______________________________________ _______ ____________
House 19970410 Introduced, read first time, 25 HJ
referred to Committee
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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.