2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 23 - Law Enforcement and Public Safety › Chapter 47 - Public Safety Communications Center › Section 23-47-60. Addressing.

(A) Local government, upon approval for implementation of a 911 system, shall standardize addressing within its area according to service supplier procedures. Enhanced 911 must not be placed in service until eighty-five percent of the residents have been provided with a standardized address by the local government. Those residents who do not have a standardized address provided by the local government will be placed in the service supplier's error file. Upon activation by enhanced 911 for the public, the service supplier's error file rate must not exceed one percent.
(B) Addressing costs are limited solely to establishing and maintaining addressing for a 911 system.
(C) Addressing must meet the following criteria:
(1) New street names assigned must not duplicate or be similar to an existing street name within the local government's geographical area.
(2) Existing duplicate street names must be changed as necessary by the local government to ensure efficiency of the emergency response system.
(3) Each house, building, or other occupied structure must be assigned a separate number. A number or alphabetical letter must be assigned for each separate occupant within a building or other occupied structure. Examples include apartments, companies, etc.
(4) Written notification of the proper address of each house, building, or structure must be given to its owner, occupant, or agent in all instances where a new number has been assigned. Existing streets and addresses must receive verification of the correct address.
(D)(1) The owner, occupant, or agent of each house, building, or other structure assigned a number under a uniform numbering system shall place or cause to be placed the number on the house, building, or other structure within twenty-one days after receiving notification of the proper number assignment.
(2) Costs and installation of the number must be paid for by the property owner or occupant. Residential numbers must not be less than three inches in height. Business numbers must not be less than four inches in height. All numbers must be made of a durable, clearly visible material and must contrast with the color of the house, building, or other structure.
(3) Numbers must be conspicuously placed immediately above, on, or at the side of the appropriate door so that the number is visible clearly from the street. In cases where the building is situated more than fifty feet from the street or road, the building number also must be placed near the walk, driveway, or common entrance to the building, or upon the mailbox, gatepost, fence, or other appropriate place so as to clearly be visible from the street or road.
(4) Residents, businesses, owners, or others who fail to comply with this subsection are guilty of a misdemeanor, triable in magistrate's court, and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than two hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days. Each day in violation constitutes a separate offense.
(E)(1) Mapping is extremely essential to an effective emergency response system and a requirement for addressing. Local government, through subscriber billing, may cause nonrecurring costs to be applied for hardware and software for purchasing and operating computerized mapping within the county 911 system in an amount not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars. This nonrecurring cost is a part and may not exceed the maximum amounts that may be billed to an individual exchange line. Local governments with existing budgeted or planned computerized mapping are not eligible to bill subscribers for these type services.
(2) Local governments shall coordinate addressing and mapping with the telephone company, United States Postal Service, appropriate state agencies, and public utility companies.
(3) The 911 system must not be implemented by the service supplier until the local government notifies it that all requirements mandated by this section are fulfilled.
(F) To help ensure these standards are implemented successfully throughout an entire county, the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office shall designate one office within each county as the addressing official.
HISTORY: 1991 Act No. 245, Section 1; 2019 Act No. 60 (H.3586), Section 5, eff May 16, 2019.
Effect of Amendment
2019 Act No. 60, Section 5, added (F).