South Carolina § 61-6-180 - Notice of application.

§ 61-6-180. Notice of application.

(A) A person who intends to apply for a license under this article or Article 7 of this chapter must advertise at least once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper circulated nearest to the proposed location of the business and most likely to give notice to interested citizens of the county, city, and community in which the applicant proposes to engage in business. The department must determine which newspapers meet the requirements of this section based on available circulation figures and the proposed location of the business. However, if a newspaper is published in the county and historically has been the newspaper where the advertisements are published, the advertisements published in that newspaper meet the requirements of this section. The notice must be in the legal notice section of the paper or in an equivalent section if the newspaper has no legal notice section, be in large type, cover a space one column wide and not less than two inches deep, and state the type of license applied for, and the exact location at which the proposed business is to be operated. An applicant for a beer or wine permit and an alcoholic liquor license may use the same advertisement for both if the advertisement is approved by the department.

(B) Notice also must be given by displaying a sign for fifteen days at the site of the proposed business. The sign must:

(1) state the type of license sought;

(2) state where an interested person may protest the application;

(3) be in bold type;

(4) cover a space at least twelve inches high and eighteen inches wide;

(5) be posted and removed by an agent of the division.

The provision of this section requiring publication of notice do not apply to a person licensed under the provisions of this article or Article 7 of this chapter when the licensee applies to the department for a renewal of his license to engage in the same business at the same location.

HISTORY: 1996 Act No. 415, SECTION 1; 2000 Act No. 304, SECTION 1; 2003 Act No. 70, SECTION 8.