Did South Carolina’s 1995 disabled-parking fee exemption cover daily airport lots and employees?

Plain-English summary

Greenville-Spartanburg Airport's police chief asked three questions about parking for people with disabilities: required space markings, free parking in daily or longer-term facilities, and fees for employees using a commercial lot at a reduced rate. In March 1995, Assistant Attorney General Robert Cook said the statutes he examined required accessible spaces to be clearly identified but did not specify a standard paint color or sign design. He read the then-current exemption for metered or timed parking as including airport spaces charged by day, week, or month.

Cook also said the airport employee arrangement did not change the fee result. Even though employees had a separate free lot, an eligible employee using a timed commercial lot at a reduced rate was still charged a parking fee. He believed a court would apply the statute's exemption to that reduced fee. His answer rested on a required placard or plate and a space qualifying as timed or metered parking.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1995. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Historical summary

Airport operators and parking staff

The opinion treated time-based daily, weekly, and monthly lots as timed parking under the 1995 provision. It did not find any state rule specifying a particular color or sign format, but said the designated space had to be clearly identified.

Drivers and airport employees

For an eligible person displaying the required placard or plate, the writer read the law to remove parking fees in a timed or metered spot. He reached the same conclusion for an employee charged a reduced commercial-lot fee, despite the availability of a free employee lot.

Common questions

Did the 1995 rule apply only to short-term metered spaces? No. Cook read “timed” parking to include airport parking charged according to the duration of the stay, whether by day, week, or month.

Could the airport charge an eligible employee a reduced fee for a timed commercial lot? The writer believed a court would exempt the employee from that fee, despite a separate free staff lot.

Did the state statutes specify blue paint or a particular sign? The writer found no such standard in the statutes or a transportation department regulation he could locate. He said accessible spaces still had to be clearly identified.

Background and statutory framework

The letter compared the 1995 fee exemption for metered and timed parking with the provisions on designated spaces and markers. It also relied on an earlier AG opinion defining timed parking to include ticketed time-based charges. The letter did not determine today's parking rules. It described itself as informal and not personally reviewed or formally published by the Attorney General.

Citations and references

• Section 56-3-1960: the metered and timed parking fee exemption interpreted.
• Section 56-3-1965: provision on designated spaces for municipalities.
• Section 56-3-1975: provision requiring clear identification of accessible spaces.
• Windham v. Page: case cited within the earlier opinion on ordinary statutory meaning.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.scag.gov/opinions/opinions-archive/march-24-1995/
• Original PDF: https://www.scag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1995mar24watson.pdf

Original opinion text

5575

The State of South Carolina

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
CllARLES MOLONY CONDON
ATTORNEY GENERAL

March 24, 1995

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Thomas E. Watson, Chief of Police
Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission
2000 GSP Drive, Suite 1
Greer, South Carolina 29651-9202
Re: Informal Opinion
Dear Chief Watson:
You have asked three questions regarding handicapped parking at the GreenvilleSpartanburg Airport. Those are as follows: 1.

Do any standard markings exist for Handicapped
Parking spaces? (i.e. paint color or signage)

2.

Section 56-3-1960 of the South Carolina Code indicates a person that is handicapped would be allowed to park in a timed or metered parking place without being subject to fees or fines. Would this privilege extend into daily, weekly or-monthly parking facilities?

3.

The employees at the Airport are provided a free
parking lot. However, employees are allowed to park
in the revenue lots at a reduced rate. Would a handicapped employee have the privilege of free parking in a daily, weekly or monthly parking facility?

S.C. Code Ann. Section 56-3-1960 provides in pertinent part:

REMBERT

c. DENNIS BUILDING

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POST OFFICE Box 11549

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COLUMBIA,

s.c. 29211-1549

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TELEPHONE:

803-734-3970

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FACSIMILE: 803-253-6283

Chief Watson
Page 2
·March 24, 1995
(1)

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Any person who is handicapped as defined in this
article must be allowed to park in metered or timed
parking places without being subject to parking fees or fines. This section has no application to those areas or during those times in which the stopping, parking, or standing of all vehicles is prohibited or which are reserved for special types of vehicles.

Section 56-3-1965 further specifies that "[t]hose municipalities having marked parking spaces shall provide appropriately designated space or spaces reserved for the parking of handicapped persons." [emphasis added]. In addition, Section 56-3-1975 requires:
[e]ach handicapped parking place must be clearly identified as a handicapped parking place. If the handicapped parking place is on public property, the marker must be maintained Qv the political subdivision having jurisdiction over the public property or the street or highway where the handicapped parking place is located. If the handicapped parking place is on private property, the marker must be maintained by the owner of the property.
[emphasis added].
Addressing each of your questions in turn, as to your first inquiry, the statutes do not require any "standard markings" for handicapped spaces. Section 56-3-1975 simply mandates that "[e]ach handicapped parking place must be clearly identified as a handicapped parking place." [emphasis added]. Similarly, municipalities are obligated to provide "appropriately designed" spaces where marked handicapped spaces are provided. I cannot find any Regulations previously promulgated by the Department of Transportation regarding signs for handicapped parking. You may wish, therefore, to contact Ms. Betty Mabry, Legal Counsel to the Department, regarding any information that can be provided in this area. With respect to your next question, whether the parking privilege extends to daily, weekly or monthly parking facilities, I would advise that it does. In an opinion, dated August 18, 1980, interpreting Section 56-3-1960, we wrote: Code§ 56-3-1960 states "[a]ny person who is handicapped as defined in this article, shall be allowed to park in metered or timed parking places without being subject to parking fees or

Chief Watson
Page 3
March 24, 1995
fines." Blacks Law Dictionary defines a parking meter as a clock set on a post measuring time of parking. A metered parking place, therefore, would refer to those spaces which have a parking meter. The meaning of the words "timed parking" is not as clear. Rules of statutory construction require that words used in the statute be given their usual and ordinary meaning unless otherwise indicated. Windham v. Page, 191 S.C. 271, 6 S.E.2d 270 ( 1939). Timed parking would, therefore, include those places where there is free parking for a specified duration with fines imposed thereafter or where tickets are issued to denote the time of arrival and departure and one is charged according to the amount of time spent in the parking place. Anyone displaying the reguired placard or plate would be exempt from parking fees or fines in either a metered spot or a timed spot.... [emphasis added].

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Clearly, this opinion does not appear to suggest, nor do the statutes appear to contemplate, any time limitations with respect to a handicapped person being "allowed to park in metered or timed parking places without being subject to parking fees or fines." If the space is "metered or timed" as defined above, and it would appear that long-term Airport parking is "timed", it would not matter what the time restrictions on parking were

• a day, a week or a month etc. - the statute would still exempt the handicapped from
  paying "parking fees or fines."

f"''

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Finally, with respect to employee parking, the statute does not seem to speak to this question directly. You have indicated that while Airport employees are allowed to park for free in the employees lot, they may also park in the long-term commercial lot, but at a reduced rate. It would therefore appear to be difficult, logically, to distinguish this situation, for purposes of the statute, from the one involving commercial parking, addressed above. The only difference is that the employee receives a reduced rate for parking in the commercial lot. That the employees also have a "free" lot, would make no difference with respect to their parking in the commercial lot. When using the commercial lot, the employee still pays a "fee" to park in a "timed" spot as defined above. So long as a "fee" is charged or a "fine" is assessed for parking in a "timed" space, the intent of the General Assembly is that "[a]nyone displaying the required placard or plate would be exempt ... " therefrom. Op. Atty. Gen., August 18, 1980, supra. Thus, I believe

Chief Watson
Page 4
March 24, 1995
a court would construe the statute as exempting a handicapped person from paying the reduced rate parking fee for Airport employees. This letter is an informal opinion only. It has been written by a designated Assistant Attorney General and represents the position of the undersigned attorney as to the specific questions asked. It has not, however, been personally scrutinized by the Attorney General nor officially published in the manner of a formal opinion. I trust the foregoing responds to your questions. With kind regards, I remain Very truly yours,

Robert D. Cook
Deputy Attorney General
RDC/an

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