Chap. 333.—An ACT to regulate outdoor advertising outside of the corporate
limits of cities and incorporated towns in sight of public highways; to
provide for licensing persons engaged in the business of outdoor advertising
and for the issuance of permits for advertisements and advertising structures ;
to prohibit certain advertisements and advertising structures and to provide
for the removal of advertisements and advertising structures illegally posted,
displayed, erected, used or maintained; to prescribe the powers and duties
of certain officers relating thereto; and to prescribe penalties for violations
of this act. [H B 83]

Approved March 31, 1938

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

Section 1. Definitions——The following terms, wherever used or
referred to in this act, shall have the following meanings unless a dif-
ferent meaning clearly appears from the context:

(a) “Advertisement” means any writing, printing, picture, paint-
ing, display, emblem, drawing, sign, or similar device ‘intended to in-
vite or to draw the attention of the public to any goods, merchandise,
property, real or personal, business, services, entertainment or amuse-
ment, manufactured, produced, bought, sold, conducted, furnished or
dealt in by any person, which is posted or displayed outdoors, on real
property and shall include any part of an advertisement recognizable as
such ;

(b) “Advertising structure” means any rigid or semi-rigid mate-
rial, with or without any advertisement displayed thereon, situated upon
or attached to real property outdoors, primarily or principally for the
purpose of furnishing a background or base or support upon which an
advertisement may be posted or displayed;

(c) “Business of outdoor advertising’? means the erection, use or
maintenance of advertising structures, or the posting or display of
outdoor advertisements, by any person who receives profit gained’ from
rentals or any other compensation from any other person for the use
or maintenance of such advertising structures or the posting or display
of such advertisements, except reasonable compensation for materials
and labor used or furnished in the actual erection of advertising struc-
tures or the actual posting of advertisements ; :

(d) “Commissioner” means the State Highway Commissioner ;
(e) “Commonwealth” means the Commonwealth of Virginia;

(f) “Highway” means every way or place of whatever nature open
to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel in this State,
outside of cities and incorporated towns;

(g) “Person” includes an individual, partnership, association or
corporation ;

(h) “Post” means post, display, print, paint, burn, nail, paste or
otherwise attach; | oe

(1) “Real property” includes any property physically attached or
annexed to real property in any manner whatsoever ;

(j) “State” means the Commonwealth of Virginia;
(k) “Town” means an incorporated town.

Section 2. Enforcement of Provisions by Commissioner.—It shall
be the function and duty of the commissioner to administer and en-
force the provisions of this act. He may, in the performance of his
duties hereunder, assign to division engineers, and other employees in
the Department of Highways such duties other than discretional powers
as he may think appropriate.

Section 3. Territory to which act applies; entries, examinations and
surveys.—The territory under the jurisdiction of the commissioner for
the purposes of this act shall include all of the State outside the cor-
porate limits of any city or town. The commissioner and all employees
under his direction, in the performance of their functions and duties
under the provisions of this act, may enter into and upon any land
upon which advertising matter coming within the terms of this act is
displayed and make such examinations and surveys as may be relevant.

Section 4. Licensed Outdoor Advertisers——-No person shall en-
gage or continue in the business of outdoor advertising in this State
outside the corporate limits of any city or town without first obtaining
a license therefor from the commissioner. The fee for such license,
hereby imposed for revenue for the use of the State, shall be twenty-
five dollars per annum, payable annually in advance. Applications for
licenses, or renewal of licenses, shall be made on forms furnished by
the commissioner and shall contain such information as the commis-
sioner may require, and shall be accompanied by the annual fee. Li-
censes granted under this section shall expire on the thirty-first day of
December of each year, and shall not be prorated. Applications for the
renewal of licenses shall be made not less than thirty days prior to the
date of expiration. Nothing in this section shall be construed to re-
quire any person who advertises upon a structure or fixture on his
property or a licensed advertiser’s structure or other space to obtain a
license. .

The commissioner shall have the right, after thirty days notice in
writing to the licensee, to revoke any license granted by him upon
repayment of a proportionate part of the license fee, in any case where
he shall find that any of the information required to be given in the
application for the license is knowingly false or misleading or that
the licensee has violated any of the provisions of this act, unless such
licensee shall, before the expiration of said thirty days, correct such false
or misleading information and comply with the provisions of this act.
Any person whose license is so revoked may, within thirty days from
the date of such revocation, appeal from the decision of the commis-
sioner to the circuit court of the city of Richmond or at the election
of the licensee, in the Circuit Court of the county or city in which the
licensee resides, by presenting to the court or the judge thereof after
five days notice in writing to the commissioner, an affidavit made by
the licensee or by his duly authorized agent or attorney, setting forth
the fact of such revocation, and that the same was contrary to law.
Any person aggrieved by the judgment of said court shall have the
right of appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Section 5. Bond required from out of State licensee.—No license
to engage or continue in the business of outdoor advertising shall be
granted to any person having his principal place of business outside the
State, or which is incorporated outside the State, for the posting or dis-
play of any advertisement or the erection, use or maintenance of any
advertising structure, until such person shall have furnished and filed
with the commissioner a bond payable to the Commonwealth, with
surety approved by the commissioner and in form approved by the
Attorney General, in the sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned that
such licensee shall fulfill all requirements of law, and the regulations
and orders of the commissioner, relating to the display of advertise-
ments or the erection of advertising structures. Such bond shall re-
main in full force and effect so long as any obligations of such licensee
to the State shall remain unsatisfied.

Section 6. Individual device permits; fees—(a) Except as in this
act otherwise provided, no person, whether engaged in the business of
outdoor advertising or not, shall erect, use, maintain, post or display
any advertisement or advertising structure outside any city or town,
without first obtaining a permit therefor from the commissioner and pay-
ing the annual fee therefor, as herein provided.

(b) <A separate application for a permit shall be made for each
separate advertisement or advertising structure, on a form furnished
by the commissioner, which application shall be signed by the applicant
or his representative duly authorized in writing to act for him, and
shall describe and set forth the size, shape and the nature of the adver-
tisement or advertising structure it is proposed to post, display, erect or
maintain and its actual or proposed location with sufficient accuracy
to enable the State Highway Commissioner to identify such advertise-
ment or advertising structure and to find its actual or proposed location.
Every application shall be accompanied by an application fee for each
application of fifty cents for each advertisement or advertising struc-
ture containing fifty square feet or less, and two dollars for each ad-
vertisement or advertising structure containing more than fifty square
feet, which fee shall be retained by the commissioner if the permit is
issued. Each portion of an advertising structure upon which an ad-
vertisement is posted or displayed shall constitute a separate adver-
tising structure for purposes of this section, except that a series of not
more than six signs intended to carry attention from one sign or de-
vice to another and containing in the aggregate less than fifty square
feet shall require only one application and one permit fee of fifty cents.
If the permit is refused, the commissioner shall refund one-half the
application fee to the applicant. Each application shall be accompanied
by the written consent, or in lieu thereof a copy certified by an officer
authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds in this State, of the owner
of the real property upon which such advertisement or advertising struc-
ture is to be erected, used, maintained, posted or displayed, or of such
other person having the legal right to grant such consent, or of the
duly authorized agent of such owner, or other person. Application shall
be made in like manner for a permit to use, maintain or display any
existing advertisement or advertising structure. Permits issued here-
under shall run for the calendar year, and may be renewed upon the
payment of the same fee required to be paid upon application for a per-
mit. No application shall be required for renewal of a permit.

(c) If more than one side of an advertising structure is used for
advertising, an application fee for each such side shall be required.
Advertisements sculptured in the round shall be treated as using three
sides.

(d) No bond or permit shall be required for the posting or dis-
play of any advertisement posted or displayed on any advertising struc-
ture or space for which a permit has been issued or renewed for the
then current calendar year under the provisions of this act unless said
permit has been revoked.

(e) The commissioner may, after thirty days notice in writing to
the permittee, revoke any permit issued by him under this section upon
repayment of a proportionate part of the fee in any case where it shall
appear to the commissioner that the application for the permit contains
knowingly false or misleading information or that the permittee has
violated any of the provisions of this act, unless such permittee shall,
before the expiration of said thirty days, correct such false or mislead-
ing information and comply with the provisions of this act; if the erec-
tion, maintenance and display of any advertisement or advertising struc-
ture for which a permit is issued by the commissioner and the permit
fee has been paid as above provided, shall be prevented by any zoning
board, commission or other public agency which also has jurisdiction
ever the proposed advertisement or advertising structure or its site,
the application fee for such advertisement or advertising structure shall
be returned by the commissioner and the permit revoked. But one-half
the application fee shall be deemed to have accrued upon the erection
of an advertising structure or the display of an advertisement followed
by an inspection by the commissioner or his representative.

({) In any case if an applicant for a permit shall certify in his
application that he is unable to state the actual or proposed location of
the advertisement or advertising structure or to file the written consent
of the landowner or other person having the legal right to the real estate
upon which the advertisement or advertising structure is to be erected,
used, maintained, posted or displayed the commissioner shall issue to
such applicant a temporary permit, together with the proper identifi-
cation number to be attached to such advertisement or advertising struc-
ture, which temporary permit shall expire sixty days from the date
of its issue. If within said sixty days, the applicant shall file with
the commissioner an application setting forth all of the information re-
quired in subsection (b) of this section the commissioner shall issue to
such applicant a permit.

(g) Any person aggrieved by any action of the commissioner in
refusing to grant or in revoking a permit under this section may, with-
in thirty days from the date of such refusal or revocation, appeal from
the decision of the commissioner to the circuit court of the city of
Richmond, or, at the election of such person, to the circuit or
corporation court of the county or city in which such person resides,
by presenting to the court or the judge thereof in vacation, after five
days notice in writing to the commissioner, an affidavit made by such
person or by his duly authorized agent or attorney, setting forth the
fact of such refusal or revocation, as the case may be, and that the
action of the commissioner was without just cause.

Section 7. Identification—The commissioner shall require that
each advertising structure and each advertisement not posted or dis-
played on an advertising structure shall bear an identification number,
furnished by the commissioner and if erected, maintained or displayed
by a licensed outdoor advertiser shall also bear his name, and the com-
missioner shall make suitable provisions for the details thereof.

Section 8. Removal.—All outdoor advertisements and advertising
structures shall be removed by the permittee within ninety days from
the date of the expiration or revocation of the permit for the same.
The commissioner, in the case of default of removal, shall give such
permittee at least thirty days notice of the date of expiration of such
ninety day period. Any permittee failing to remove any such adver-
tisement or advertising structure within said ninety days shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor.

Section 9. Certain outdoor advertising prohibited—No advertise-
ment or advertising structure shall be erected or maintained:

(a) Within five hundred feet of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the
Colonial National Parkway or the Mount Vernon Boulevard or within
five hundred feet of any public cemetery, public park, reservation, pub-
lic playground or State forest, outside the limits of any city or town;

(b) Which involves motion or rotation of any part of the struc-
ture or displays intermittent lights ;
(c) Which uses the word “stop” or “danger” prominently di
played, or presents or implies the.need or requirement of stopping ¢
the existence of danger, or which is a copy or imitation of official signs

(d) In such manner or place as to constitute a hazard to trafhi

Section 10. Outdoor advertising on highways.—Any person wh
wiliully or maliciously displaces, removes, destroys or injures a mik
board, milestone, danger-sign, signal, guide-sign, guide-post, highwa
sign, or historical marker or any inscription thereon, lawfully within
highway, or who in any manner paints, prints, places, puts or affixe
any advertisement upon or to any rock, stone, tree, fence, stump, pol
mile-board, milestone, danger-sign, guide-sign, guide-post, highway sigt
historical marker, building or other object lawfully within the limits ¢
any highway, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punishe
accordingly. SO

Section 11. Disposition of fees—All moneys received by the com
missioner under the provisions of this act shall be paid by him into th
State treasury, and allocated to the State Highway Commission for us
in the construction and maintenance of highways. .

Section 12. Harmony of regulations—No zoning board or com
mission nor any other public officer or agency, shall permit any adver
tisement or advertising structure which is prohibited under the pro
visions of this act, nor shall the commissioner permit any advertisemen
or advertising structure which is prohibited by any other public board
officer or agency in the lawful exercise of its or their powers.

Section 13. Certain advertisements excepted.—The following ad.
vertisements and the advertising structures, or parts thereof, upon whicl
they are posted or displayed, are excepted from all the provisions o:
this act, save those enumerated in section nine, sub-section (b), (c)
and (d): ) ott

(a) Signs erected or maintained, or caused to be erected or main-
tained, by the owner or lessee of a place of business or residence withir
ive hundred feet of such place of business or residence and relating
solely to merchandise, services or entertainment sold, produced, manu-
factured or furnished at such place of business or residence .

(a-1) Signs erected or maintained, or caused to be erected or main-
ained, on any farm by the owner or lessee of such farm and relating

solely to farm produce, merchandise, services or entertainment sold,
sroduced, manufactured or furnished on such farm; )

(b) Signs upon real property posted or displayed by the owner,
wr by the authority of the owner, stating that the property, or a part
hereof, is for sale or rent; : a , ,

(c) Official notices or advertisements posted or displayed by or
inder the direction of any public or court officer in the performance
f. his official or directed duties, or by trustees under deeds of trust,
leeds of assignment or other similar instruments ; ae

(d) Danger or precautionary signs relating to the premises or
igns warning of the condition of or dangers of travel on a highway,
rected or authorized by the commissioner: or forect Gre warain» oo?
‘rected under authority of the State Commission on Conservation and
Development, and signs, notices or symbols erected by the United States
Sovernment under the direction of the United States Forestry Service ;

(e) Signs relating solely to any city, town, village or historic place
yr shrine;

(f{) Notices of any railroad, bridges, ferries or other transporta-
ion or transmission company necessary for the direction or safety of
he public;

(g) Signs, notices or symbols for the information of aviators as
‘o location, direction and landings and conditions affecting safety in
aviation erected or authorized by the commissioner ;

(h) Signs containing sixteen square feet or less and bearing an
announcement of any town, village or city advertising itself or local
industries, meetings, buildings or attractions, provided the same is main-
tained wholly at public expense ;

(i) Advertisements or advertising structures not visible from any
highway or other public place ;

(j) Signs or notices containing two square feet or less, placed at
a junction of two or more roads in the State highway system denoting
only the distance or direction of a residence or place of business, pro-
vided such signs or notices do not exceed reasonable number in the
discretion of the commissioner ;

(k) Signs or notices erected or maintained upon property giving
the name of the owner, lessee or occupant of the premises ;

(1) Advertisements and advertising structures within the corporate
limits of cities and towns;

(m) Historical markers erected by duly constituted and author-
ized public authorities ;

(n) Highway markers and signs erected, or caused to be erected
by the commissioner or the State Highway Commission ;

(o) Signs erected upon property warning the public against hunt-
ing, fishing or trespassing thereon ;

(p) Signs erected by Red Cross authorities relating to Red Cross
Emergency Stations. And authority is hereby expressly given for the
erection and maintenance of such signs upon the right-of-way of al
highways in this State at such locations as may be approved by the
commissioner ;

(q) Signs advertising agricultural products and horticultural prod,
ucts, or either, when such products are produced by the person whx
erects and maintains the said signs; provided, however, that the loca
tion and number of said signs shall be in the sole discretion of the Stat
Highway Commissioner ;

(r) Signs advertising bona fide agricultural county, district o:
State fairs.

Section 14. Violation a nuisance; abatement——Any advertisement
or advertising structure, which is erected, used, maintained, posted, o
displayed in violation of this act, is hereby declared to be a public an
private nuisance and shall be forthwith removed, obliterated or abate
by the commissioner or his representatives, after ten days’ notice i
writing mailed to the last known address of the licensee or permitte
or if there be no licensee or permittee then to the person erecting, mair
taining, using, posting or displaying the same.

Section 15. Any person, firm or corporation violating any provi
sion of this act for which violation no other penalty is prescribed by thi
act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof, sha.
be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars; each da
during which such violation is continued after conviction may be treate
for all purposes as a separate offense.

Section 16. Separability of provisions.—If any provision of thi
act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is hel
invalid, the remainder of this act, and the application of such provisior
to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected thereby,

Section, 17. Construction of act.—This act shall be liberally con
strued with a view to the effective accomplishment of its purposes.

2. This act shall take effect January first, nineteen hundred anc
thirty-nine.