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Terms Used In South Carolina Code 5-37-50

  • Governing body: means the municipal council or other governing body in which the general governing powers of the municipality are vested. See South Carolina Code 5-37-20
  • Improvement district: means any area within the municipality designated by the governing body pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and within which an improvement plan is to be accomplished. See South Carolina Code 5-37-20
  • Improvement plan: means an overall plan by which the governing body proposes to effect improvements within an improvement district to preserve property values, prevent deterioration of urban areas, and preserve the tax base of the municipality, and includes an overall plan by which the governing body proposes to effect improvements within an improvement district in order to encourage and promote private or public development within the improvement district. See South Carolina Code 5-37-20
  • Improvements: include open or covered malls, parkways, parks and playgrounds, recreation facilities, athletic facilities, pedestrian facilities, parking facilities, parking garages, and underground parking facilities, and facade redevelopment, the widening and dredging of existing channels, canals, and waterways used specifically for recreational or other purposes provided that the municipality, the State, or other public entity owns fee simple title or an easement for maintenance in these channels, canals, or waterways, the relocation, construction, widening, and paving of streets, roads, and bridges, including demolition of them, underground utilities, all activities authorized by Chapter 1 of Title 31 (State Housing Law), a building or other facilities for public use, a public works eligible for financing pursuant to the provisions of § 6-21-50, services or functions which a municipality in accordance with state law may by law provide, and all things incidental to the improvements, including planning, engineering, administration, managing, promotion, marketing, and acquisition of necessary easements and land, and may include facilities for lease or use by a private person, firm, or corporation. See South Carolina Code 5-37-20
  • Owner: means any person twenty-one years of age, or older, or the proper legal representative for any person younger than twenty-one years of age, and any firm or corporation, who or which owns legal title to a present possessory interest in real estate equal to a life estate or greater (expressly excluding leaseholds, easements, equitable interests, inchoate rights, dower rights, and future interest) and who owns, at the date of the petition or written consent, at least an undivided one-tenth interest in a single tract and whose name appears on the county tax records as an owner of real estate, and any duly organized group whose total interest is at least equal to a one-tenth interest in a single tract. See South Carolina Code 5-37-20
The governing body, by resolution adopted, shall describe the improvement district and the improvement plan to be effected, including a property within the improvement district to be acquired and improved, the projected time schedule for the accomplishment of the improvement plan, the estimated cost and the amount of the cost to be derived from assessments, bonds, or other general funds, together with the proposed basis and rates of assessments to be imposed within the improvement district. However, except in the case of an improvement district in which the sole improvements are the widening and dredging of canals and waterways that are connected to canals as described in § 48-39-130(D)(10), owner-occupied residential property that is taxed, or will be taxed pursuant to § 12-43-220(c), must not be included within an improvement district unless the owner, at the time the improvement district is created, gives the governing body written permission to include the property within the improvement district. The resolution also shall establish the time and place of a public hearing to be held within the municipality not sooner than twenty days nor more than forty days following the adoption of the resolution, at which an interested person may attend and be heard, either in person or by attorney, on a matter in connection with the improvement district.