Chap. 420.—An ACT to make it unlawful to erect, or maintain, or permit to be
erected, or maintained, along any public highway any false or misleading sign
purporting to furnish travel information; to provide for the removal and
destruction of such signs under certain circumstances; to prescribe penalties
for violations; and to repeal inconsistent acts. [S B 351]

Approved March 30, 1936

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

Section 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to erect, or main-
tain, alongside, or in plain view of, any public highway, any false or
misleading sign of any kind or character purporting to furnish travel
information relating to place of direction. It shall be unlawful for any
person to erect or maintain alongside, or in plain view of, any public
highway any sign of any kind or character purporting to furnish travel
information relating to merchandise or services unless the design of
such sign, the information thereon, and the location thereof, be ap-
proved in writing by the State Highway Commissioner; provided,
however, that the provisions of this act as to merchandise, and service
shall not apply or restrict the right of any person to post, display,
erect or maintain on any store, dwelling house, or other building, to-
gether with so much land therewith as shall be necessary for the con-
venience, use and enjoyment thereof, or on any mercantile appliances,
contrivances or machinery annexed or immediately adjacent thereto,
advertising goods, merchandise, property, real or personal, business
services, entertainment or amusements actually and in good faith
manufactured, produced, bought, sold, conducted, furnished or dealt
in on the premises; or to limit or restrict the publication of official
notices by or under the direction of any public or court officer in the
performance of his official or directed duties; or to limit or restrict
notice of sale by a trustee under a deed of trust, deed of assignment,
or other similar instrument ; nor to apply to or restrict the right of any
property owner, his agent, lessee or tenant to maintain any sign offer-
ing to the public farm products, including live stock of every kind,
or board or lodging, or similar entertainment, or of the sale, rental or
lease of the property.

Provided that nothing in this act shall limit the right of any person,
firm or corporation to erect signs which advertise natural scenic at-
tractions in this State.

Section 2. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of
the preceding section shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a
fine not to exceed ten dollars for each offense, and it shall be deemed
a separate offense for the same person to erect, or permit to be erected,
a similar sign at each of two or more places; provided, however, as to
any such sign erected before the effective date of this act, if it be
satisfactorily proven that the information thereon given is correct,
the person who erected the same, as well as the person who permitted
the same to be erected, shall not be deemed guilty of such violation.

Section 3. It shall be the duty of the State Highway Commissioner
whenever he shall ascertain that any such sign so erected before the
effective date of this act, gives incorrect information, to notify the
person who erected the same, and the person on whose property it is
located, in writing, to forthwith remove it, and if it be not removed
within ten days after receipt of such notice, the said commissioner
shall remove and destroy the same, or cause it to be removed and
destroyed, without liability for damages therefor; and if any person
convicted of erecting, or maintaining, any such sign, or of permitting
the same to be erected or maintained, as hereinabove provided, shall
fail or refuse to remove the same within ten days after such judgment
of conviction, the said commissioner shall remove and destroy such
sign, or cause the same to be removed and destroyed, without liability
for damages therefor.

2. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of
this act, are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.