(A) Before issuing a corporate certificate to a proposed municipality, the Secretary of State shall determine based on the filing submitted and the recommendation of the Joint Legislative Committee on Municipal Incorporation whether the proposed municipality meets the following requirements:

(1) 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, except as provided in subsections (B) through (E);

(2) no part of the area is within five miles of the boundary of an active incorporated municipality, except as provided in subsections (B) through (E);

(3) the area seeking to be incorporated has filed a service feasibility study that has been reviewed by the Joint Legislative Committee on Municipal Incorporation and approved by the Secretary of State;

(4) the area proposed to be incorporated is contiguous as defined and as described in this item. "Contiguous" means adjacent properties that share a continuous border. If a publicly-owned property intervenes between two areas proposed to be incorporated together, which but for the intervening publicly-owned property would be adjacent and share a continuous border, the intervening publicly-owned property does not destroy contiguity;

(5) the area seeking to be incorporated has filed a proposal for providing either directly or indirectly a substantially similar level of law enforcement services to the area's existing law enforcement coverage prior to seeking incorporation; and

(6) the area seeking to be incorporated has filed a proposal demonstrating that at least three of the following services, either directly or by contract, will be provided to the incorporated area no later than the first day of the third fiscal year following the effective date of incorporation:

(a) fire protection at a minimum service level required in regulations promulgated by the South Carolina Fire Marshal;

(b) solid waste collection and disposal;

(c) water supply, water distribution, or both;

(d) wastewater collection and treatment;

(e) storm water collection and disposal;

(f) enforcement of building, housing, plumbing, and electrical codes;

(g) planning and zoning;

(h) recreational facilities and programs; or

(i) street lighting.

(B)(1) 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 seven thousand persons, then the provision of the five-mile limitation of this section does not apply to the area.

(2) For purposes of item (1) of this subsection, a refusal to annex the area by the municipality includes a statement from the municipality that the area does not meet the statutory requirements for annexation.

(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 qualified electors of the respective areas seeking incorporation.

(E) 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.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 47-2; 1975 (59) 692; 1991 Act No. 7, Section 1; 2000 Act No. 250, Section 1; 2005 Act No. 77, Section 1, eff July 1, 2005; 2006 Act No. 239, Section 1, eff March 15, 2006.

Editor's Note

2006 Act No. 239, Section 2, provides as follows:

"By passing this act, the General Assembly intends and declares that any regulations passed by the State Law Enforcement Division to comply with the requirements of Act 77 of 2005 do not for any past, present, or future time represent or establish any minimum level of law enforcement service requirements for existing municipalities or towns or areas seeking to incorporate as municipalities or towns."

Effect of Amendment

The 2005 amendment rewrote this section.

The 2006 amendment rewrote subsection (A)(5) to require a proposal for a substantially similar level of law enforcement.