S.C. Code Ann. § 57-25-140 – Signs permitted along interstate or federal-aid primary highways; customary use exception; removal of vegetation from right-of-ways

(A) An outdoor advertising sign must not be erected or maintained after June 30, 1975, which is visible from the main-traveled way of the interstate or federal-aid primary highways in this State and erected with the purpose of its message being read from the traveled way, except the following:
1. (1) official signs and notices erected and maintained by the State or local governmental authorities pursuant to laws or ordinances for the purpose of carrying out an official duty or responsibility and historical markers authorized by law and erected by the State, local governmental authorities, or nonprofit historical societies;
2. (2) public utility warning and informational signs, notices, and markers which customarily are erected and maintained by publicly or privately owned utilities as essential to their operations;
3. (3) signs and notices of service clubs and religious organizations relating to meetings of nonprofit service clubs, charitable organizations or associations, or religious services;
4. (4) directional signs containing directional information about public places owned and operated by federal, state, or local governments, public or privately owned natural phenomena, historical, cultural, educational, and religious sites, and areas of natural scenic beauty or naturally suited for outdoor recreation, considered to be in the public interest;
5. (5) signs advertising the sale or lease of property upon which they are located;
6. (6) on-premises signs advertising activities conducted on the property upon which they are located, including any signs advertising a business located on property under single ownership on which are located two or more businesses, regardless of leasing arrangements;
7. (7) signs located in areas which are zoned industrial or commercial under authority of state law;
8. (8) signs located in unzoned commercial or industrial areas.
9. (9) signs of thirty-two square feet or less advertising agricultural products of a seasonal nature, signs of a political nature, signs erected by or on the behalf of eleemosynary, civic, nonprofit, church, or charitable organizations, or signs advertising special community events which are erected temporarily for ninety days or less.
(B) Signs are not permitted in any of the above categories which imitate or resemble an official traffic sign, signal, or device, are erected or maintained upon trees, are printed or drawn upon rocks or other natural features, or are in disrepair.
(C) The size of a sign permitted under items (7) and (8) of subsection (A) must not be more than six hundred seventy-two square feet in area, sixty feet in length, or forty-eight feet in height. All dimensions include border and trim but exclude decorative bases and supports. Cutouts and extensions are in addition to this amount but may not increase the height of a sign to more than forty-eight feet and may not increase the size of a sign facing by more than one hundred fifty square feet. No more than two sign panels facing in the same direction may be erected on the same sign structure if the total area of both sign panels does not exceed the maximum. The maximum size limitation applies to each sign facing.
(D) No sign permitted under this section may obscure or otherwise interfere with the effectiveness of an official traffic sign, signal, or device nor obstruct or interfere with the driver's view of approaching, merging, or intersecting traffic. No sign except on premises and FOR SALE or LEASE signs may be located within three hundred feet of any of the following which are adjacent to the highway in areas outside of incorporated municipalities or within one hundred feet on sections inside municipalities:
1. (1) public parks of ten acres or more;
2. (2) public forests;
3. (3) public playgrounds of one-half acre or more;
4. (4) scenic areas designated by the commission or other state agency having and exercising that authority.
(E) No sign structure permitted under items (7) and (8) of subsection (A) on the interstate system or on a federal-aid primary route, constructed to controlled access standards, may be erected within five hundred feet of another sign structure on the same side of the highway. No sign may be located on the interstate system or controlled access federal-aid primary route adjacent to or within five hundred feet of an interchange or a rest area measured along the interstate or controlled access primary highways from the nearest point of the beginning or ending of pavement widening at the exit from or entrance to the main-traveled way. The distance from an interchange or a rest area set forth in this subsection does not apply to sites adjacent to highways that are within the boundaries of an incorporated municipality. No sign structure permitted under items (7) and (8) of subsection (A) on a noncontrolled access federal-aid primary route outside of an incorporated municipality may be erected within three hundred feet of another sign structure on the same side of the highway. No sign structure located adjacent to a noncontrolled access federal-aid primary route may be erected within a distance of one hundred feet of another sign structure inside an incorporated municipality on the same side of the highway. This subsection does not apply to advertising displays which are separated by a building or other obstruction so that only one display located within the minimum spacing distance is visible from any point on the highway at any one time.
(F) No sign permitted under items (7) and (8) of subsection (A) may contain, include, or be illuminated by a flashing, intermittent, or moving light, except those giving public service information such as time, date, temperature, weather, or other similar information. No sign permitted under this section may be erected or maintained which is not shielded effectively so as to prevent beams or rays of light from being directed at a portion of the main-traveled way of an interstate or federal-aid primary route and which is of an intensity or brilliance so as to cause glare or to impair the vision of the driver of a motor vehicle or which otherwise may interfere with a driver's operation of a motor vehicle. No sign may be illuminated so that it interferes with the effectiveness of or obscures an official traffic sign, device, or signal.
(G) The standards contained in this section pertaining to size, shape, description, lighting, and spacing of outdoor advertising signs permitted in zoned and unzoned commercial and industrial areas do not apply to signs lawfully in place on this article's effective date. Signs lawfully in place on November 3, 1971, or erected within six months after that date under a lease dated and recorded before that date are exempted from the standards requirement.
(H) Whenever a bona fide county or local zoning authority has made a determination of customary use, which includes a regulation of size, lighting, and spacing of outdoor advertising signs, in zoned industrial or commercial areas, the determination prevails over the size, lighting, and spacing otherwise provided for the signs in subsections (C) and (E) if all of the following exist:
1. (1) The standards imposed on size, lighting, and spacing are at least as restrictive as the standards set forth in subsections (C), (D), (E), and (F).
2. (2) The zoning plan provides for effective enforcement by the zoning authority of the imposed restrictions.
3. (3) The zoning plan and amendments are submitted to and approved by the Department of Transportation before they prevail over the standards set forth in this section.
  Zoning which controls contiguous tracts which comprise less than twenty percent of the land within a political subdivision or land which is zoned primarily to permit outdoor advertising signs is not considered zoning for the purposes of this section.
(I)
1. (1) No person may cut, trim, or otherwise cause to be removed vegetation from within the limits of highway rights-of-way unless permitted to do so by the department. Permits to remove vegetation may be granted only for sign locations which have been permitted at least two years and then only at the sole discretion of the department.
2. (2) If vegetation is removed from within a highway right-of-way without a permit by the sign owner or his agent and the removal has the effect of enhancing the visibility of the outdoor advertising sign, the sign is illegal and must be removed at the responsible party's expense. Upon a violation of this subsection the responsible party is not eligible for a sign permit:
  1. (a) for one year: first violation;
  2. (b) for five years: second violation;
  3. (c) permanently: third and subsequent violations.
3. (3) The department must be reimbursed for cleaning or replanting at the site of the illegal cutting by the responsible party. Until the expenses are reimbursed, the responsible party must not be issued a sign permit.
(J) Signs permitted under items (1), (2), (3), and (4) of subsection (A) must comply with the regulations promulgated by the commission in accordance with uniform national standards.