Chapin area among county border disputes being analyzed

State geographers are working to resolve county boundary disputes in 10 areas after settling one in the Chapin area.

Work is under way to settle disagreements mainly over taxes and economic development requirements stemming from confusion over the location of landmarks such as stumps and stones used a century or more ago, officials said.

The project involves “following signs of those original surveys,” said Frank Rainwater, executive director of the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office.

State officials are using modern measuring tools to refine borders after research determining where original markers were placed.

Those techniques adjusted the border of Lexington and Richland counties in the Chapin area in 2013, moving it a few hundred feet northeast.

That change led to the ouster of Kim Murphy from the Lexington-Richland 5 School Board, after it put her home in Lexington County instead of Richland County as required.

Murphy refuses to accept the change, arguing it is a mistake, even though courts have upheld it in declining to overturn her removal by the board for nonresidency. So far, she says, she still pays taxes and votes in Richland County.

Other counties whose borders are being checked are:

Upstate: Cherokee-Spartanburg, Abbeville-Anderson, Cherokee-York and Greenville-Laurens

Midlands: Kershaw-Lancaster

Pee Dee: Darlington-Florence and Florence-Williamsburg

Lowcountry: Charleston-Dorchester, Beaufort-Hampton and Jasper-Beaufort

Border changes, if any, will start being outlined to affected residents by Dec. 31 and continue into spring. Any challenge goes to the state Administrative Law Court first, with the Legislature able to also make adjustments after that.

State officials plan eventually to check all 1,200 miles of borders of the 46 counties defined by such markers by 2030, Rainwater said.

This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 6:17 PM.