Chap. 163.—An ACT to authorize the State Highway Commissioner to acquire,
_by gift, purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, scenic easements, or in lieu
thereof parcels of land, on either side or both sides of the roadway or high-
way from a point at or near Jarmen’s Gap and extending generally in a
southwesterly direction to the North Carolina line, which roadway or highway
the State Highway Commissioner has been heretofore authorized to convey
to the United States, and which has been set apart and designated by the
United States as the proposed Shenandoah-Great Smoky Mountains National
Parkway; and to authorize the State Highway Commissioner to transfer,
assign and convey to the United States said scenic easements, or land, so
acquired. [H B 236]
Approved March 12, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. This act may be cited as the Scenic Easement Act.

Section 2. Definitions——The following terms, whenever used or
referred to in this act shall have the following meaning, unless a
different meaning clearly appears from the context:

(a) The term “scenic easement” shall mean the easement or
right of the Commonwealth of Virginia or of its assigns, the United
States of America (in cases where said easement is assigned or con-
veyed to the United States), to restrict the use of any and all lands
covered by or subject to said easement so that the owner or owners
of said land, or any part thereof, or their assigns shall not have the
privilege or right (1) to erect or authorize the erection thereon of
any building, pole, pole line or other structure; (2) to construct
thereon any priviate drive or road; (3) to require the Commonwealth
of Virginia or its assigns to construct any access road or drive
thereon; (4) to remove from or break cut, injure or destroy on the
said land any trees or plants or shrubbery; (5) to place thereon any
dumps of ashes, trash, sawdust or any unsightly or offensive material ;
(6) to place or display thereon any sign, billboard or advertisement.

(b) The term “parkway” shall mean that recently added portion
of the State highway system extending from at or near Jarman’s
Gap, in a general southwesterly direction to the North Carolina line,
which has been adopted by the Department of the Interior of the
United States as the location of the proposed Shennandoah-Great
Smoky Mountains National Parkway.

Section 3. The State Highway Commissioner is hereby author-
ized to acquire, out of funds now or hereafter appropriated for high-
way purposes, by gift, purchase, condemnation or otherwise, “scenic
easements” as defined in section two (a) of this act along one side
or both sides of the “parkway” as defined in section two (b) of this
act. The State Highway Commissioner, by and with the approval
of the Governor, be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to
transfer, assign and convey at one time or from time to time any or
all such easements to the United States of America whenever the
United States or its authorized agency shall contract and agree to
construct a roadway on the “parkway” adjacent to any such ease-
ment so to be transferred, assigned or conveyed.

Section 4. The State Highway Commissioner is hereby authorized
to acquire out of funds now or hereafter appropriated for highway
purposes, by gift, purchase, condemnation or otherwise, land in fee
simple along one side or both sides of the parkway as defined in
section two (b) of this act, in lieu of acquiring such scenic easements
as hereinbefore defined, for the purpose of beautification and scenic
protection of said parkway so as to conform with the plans for said
parkway prepared by the National Park service of the United States
Government.

The State Highway Commissioner, by and with the approval of the
Governor, be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to transfer,
assign and convey from time to time any or all such land, or scenic
easements thereon, to the United States of America whenever the
United States or its authorized agency shall contract and agree to con-
struct a roadway on the parkway adjacent to any such land so to be
transferred, assigned or conveyed.

Section 6. The State Highway Commissioner is hereby vested
with the power of eminent domain and may condemn scenic ease-
ments and such lands as are referred to in section four of this act in
accordance with the provisions of section ten of the act creating the
State Highway Commission, as amended and re-enacted by chapter
three hundred and seventy-seven, Acts of the General Assembly, nine-
teen hundred and thirty-four.

Section 7. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from
its passage,