The following words unless the context clearly indicates otherwise have the following meanings:
(1) "Person" has that meaning as found in Section 2-7-30 of the 1976 Code but also includes the State of South Carolina and its political subdivisions. A person doing business in or maintaining an office within a county or municipality is deemed to be a resident thereof for purposes of this chapter.
(2) "Tall building or structure" means any building or structure or portion of any building or structure, any part of which has, or would have upon construction, a height of more than forty-two feet measured from the highest elevation of the natural surface of the land on or over which the building or structure is constructed. This definition also includes any building or structure, regardless of where it is located, if any part of it extends more than forty-two feet above the lowest point of the protected mountain ridge located closest to the building or structure. "Tall buildings or structures" do not include:
(a) Water, radio, telephone or television towers, or any equipment for the transmission of electricity or communications or both.
(b) Structures of a relatively slender nature and minor vertical projections of a parent building, including chimneys, flagpoles, flues, spires, steeples, belfries, cupolas, antennas, poles, wires, or windmills.
(c) Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places.
(3) "Construction" means and includes reconstruction, alteration, or expansion.
(4) "Ridge" means the elongated crest or series of crests at the apex or uppermost point of intersection between two opposite slopes or sides of a mountain and includes all land within one hundred feet below the elevation of any portion of such line or surface along the crest.
(5) "Protected mountain ridges" means all ridges whose elevation is two thousand five hundred feet above sea level or more.
(6) "Crest" means the uppermost line of a mountain or chain of mountains from which the land falls away on at least two sides to a lower elevation or elevations.
HISTORY: 1984 Act No. 444, Section 3.