South Carolina Code of Laws
Chapter 25 - Outdoor Advertising
Section 57-25-120. Definitions.

As used in this article:
(1) "Interstate system" means that portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways located within this State officially designated now or in the future by the Department of Transportation and approved by the appropriate office of the United States Government pursuant to the provisions of Title 23, United States Code, "Highways".
(2) "Federal-aid primary system" means that portion of connected main highways which officially are designated as the federal-aid primary highway system now or in the future by the Department of Transportation and approved by the appropriate office of the United States Government pursuant to the provisions of Title 23, United States Code, "Highways".
(3) "Sign" or "outdoor advertising sign" means an outdoor sign, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, plaque, poster, billboard, or other thing which is designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, or any part of the advertising or its informative contents.
(4) An "unzoned commercial or industrial area" does not include land established as a scenic area pursuant to Section 57-25-140(D)(4) or land zoned by a subdivision of government. An unzoned commercial, business, or industrial area means the land occupied by the regularly used building, parking lot, and storage and processing area of a commercial, business, or industrial activity and land within six hundred feet of it on both sides of the highway. The unzoned land does not include:
(a) land on the opposite side of an interstate or freeway primary federal-aid highway;
(b) land predominantly used for residential purposes;
(c) land zoned by state or local law, regulation, or ordinance except land which is zoned in a manner which allows essentially unrestricted development or where regulation of size, spacing, and lighting of signs is unrestricted or less restrictive than the restrictions imposed by Section 57-25-140;
(d) land on the opposite side of a nonfreeway primary highway which is designated scenic by the commission.
(5) "Commercial or industrial activities" means those established activities generally recognized as commercial or industrial by zoning authorities within the State, except that none of the following are considered commercial or industrial activities:
(a) outdoor advertising structures;
(b) agriculture, forestry, ranching, grazing, farming, wayside produce stands, quarries, and borrow pits;
(c) activities conducted in a building principally used as a residence;
(d) hospitals, nursing homes, or long-term care facilities;
(e) transient or temporary activities;
(f) activities not visible from the main-traveled way;
(g) activities more than six hundred sixty feet from the nearest edge of the right-of-way of interstate and freeway primary federal-aid highways or more than three hundred feet from the nearest edge of the right-of-way of nonfreeway primary federal-aid highways;
(h) railroad tracks and minor sidings;
(i) sham, prohibited, or illegal activities;
(j) junkyards;
(k) schools, churches, or cemeteries;
(l) recreational facilities.
(6) "Freeway primary federal-aid highway" means a divided arterial highway for through traffic with full control of access built to the same standards as to access as an interstate highway, which is officially designated now or in the future as a part of the federal-aid primary system.
(7) "Adult business" means a nightclub, bar, restaurant, or another similar establishment in which a person appears in a state of sexually explicit nudity, as defined in Section 16-15-375, or semi-nudity, in the performance of their duties.
(8) "Semi-nudity" means a state of dress in which opaque clothing fails to cover the genitals, anus, anal cleft or cleavage, pubic area, vulva, nipple and areola of the female breast below a horizontal line across the top of the areola at its highest point. Semi-nudity includes the entire lower portion of the female breast, but does not include any portion of the cleavage of the human female breast exhibited by wearing clothing provided the areola is not exposed in whole or in part.
(9) "Sexually-oriented business" means a business offering its patrons goods of which a substantial portion are sexually-oriented materials. A business in which more than ten percent of the display space is used for sexually-oriented materials is presumed to be a sexually-oriented business.
(10) "Sexually-oriented materials" means textual, pictorial, or three-dimensional material that depicts nudity, sexual conduct, sexual enticement, or sadomasochistic abuse in a way that is patently offensive to the average person applying contemporary adult community standards with respect to what is suitable for minors. Sexually-oriented materials include obscene materials as defined in Section 16-15-305(B).
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 33-591.1; 1971 (57) 2061; 1975 (59) 596; 1990 Act No. 519, Section 1; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1530; 2006 Act No. 235, Section 3.B, eff February 22, 2006.

Editor's Note
2006 Act No. 235, Section 6, provides as follows:
"This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. Nothing in this act preempts or otherwise alters, modifies, applies to, or effects relocation or removal of any off-premises outdoor advertising signs pursuant to an ordinance or regulation enacted by a local governing body prior to April 14, 2005. It is the intent of the General Assembly that nothing in this act may be construed to require the payment of monetary compensation for any off-premises outdoor advertising signs relocated or removed pursuant to an ordinance enacted before the effective date of this act unless the ordinance otherwise requires the payment of monetary compensation."

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