CHAPTER 588

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 38-298, 33-802, 38-808, 83-808, 38-309,
88-810, 38-812, 38-814, 88-817 and 38-821 of the Code of Virginia and
to repeal § 88-315 of the Code of Virginia, all of which sections
relate to advertising in sight of public highways. rH 470)

Approved April 6, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 33-298, 33-302, 338-303, 33-308, 33-309, 33-310, 33-312,
33-314, 33-317 and 33-321 of the Code of Virginia be amended and re-
enacted as follows:

§ 33-298. The following terms, wherever used or referred to in this
article, shall have the following meanings unless a different meaning
clearly appears from the context:

(1) “Advertisement” means any writing, printing, picture, painting,
display, emblem, drawing, sign or similar device which is posted or dis-
played outdoors on real property and is intended to invite or to draw the
attention or to solicit the patronage or support of the public to any goods,
merchandise, property, real or personal, business, services, entertainment
or amusement manufactured, produced, bought, sold, conducted, furnished
or dealt in by any person or for any political party or for the candidacy
of any individual for any nomination or office; the term shall also include
any part of an advertisement recognizable as such;

(2) “Advertising structure’ means any rigid or semirigid material,
with or without any advertisement displayed thereon, situated upon or
attached to real property outdoors, primarily or principally for the pur-
pose of furnishing a background or base or support upon which an adver-
tisement may be posted or displayed;

3) “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 advertise-
ments, except reasonable compensation for materials and labor used or
furnished in the actual erection of advertising structures or the actual
posting of advertisements;

(4) “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;

(5) “Municipalities” means cities and incorporated towns;

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

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

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

“Town” means an incorporated town;

(10) “Historic place or shrine” includes’ only places that are main-
tained wholly at public expense or by a nonprofit organization.

§ 38-302. The following advertisements, if securely attached to real
property or advertising structures, and the advertising structures, or
parts thereof, upon which they are posted or displayed are excepted from
all the provisions of this article save those enumerated | in subsections
(2), (3), ° * (5), (6), (7) and (8) of § 33-317 and in § 33-32

(1) * Advertisements securely attached to a place oF business or
residence, and not to exceed ten advertising structures with combined
total area, exclusive of the area occupied by the name of the business,
owner or lessee, of advertisements and advertising structures not to
exceed five hundred square feet, erected or maintained, or caused to be
erected or maintained, by the owner or lessee of * such place of business
or residence within * éwo hundred and fifty feet of such place of business
or residence and relating solely to merchandise, services or entertain-
ment sold, produced, manufactured or furnished at such place of business
or residence;

(2) Signs erected or maintained, or caused to be erected or main-
tained, on any farm by the owner or lessee of such farm and relating
solely to farm produce, merchandise, services or entertainment sold, pro-
duced, manufactured or furnished on such farm;

(3) Signs upon real property posted or displayed by the owner, or
by the authority of the owner, stating that the property, upon which the
sign is located, or a part of such property, is for sale or rent or stating
any data pertaining to such property and its appurtenances, and the name
and address of the owner and the agent of such owner;

(4) Official notices or advertisements posted or displayed by or under
the direction of any public or court officer in the performance of his offi-
cial or directed duties, or by trustees under deeds of trust, deeds of assign-
ment or other similar instruments;

(5) Danger or precautionary signs relating to the premises or signs
warning of the condition of or dangers of travel on a highway, erected or
authorized by the Commissioner; or forest fire warning signs erected
under authority of the Virginia Conservation Commission and signs,
notices or symbols erected by the United States Government under the
direction of the United States Forestry Service;

*

(7) Notices of any railroad, bridges, ferries or other transportation
or transmission company necessary in the discretion of the Commissioner
for the safety of the public or for the direction of the public to such
utility or to any place to be reached by it;

(8) Signs, notices or symbols for the information of aviators as to
location, direction and landings and conditions affecting safety in aviation
erected or authorized by the Commissioner ;

(9) Signs containing sixteen square feet or less and bearing an
announcement of any county, town, village or city, or historic place or
shrine, situated in this State, advertising itself or local industries, meet-
ings, buildings or attractions, provided the same is maintained wholly at
public expense, or at the expense of such historic place or shrine.

*

(11) 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 church, residence or place of business,
provided such signs or notices do not exceed a reasonable number in the
discretion of the Commissioner ;

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

(18) Advertisements and advertising structures within the corpo-
rate limits of cities and towns;

(14) Historical markers erected by duly constituted and authorized
public authorities ;

(15) Highway markers and signs erected, or caused to be erected, by
the Commissioner or the State Highway Commission or other authorities
in accordance with law;

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

(17) 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 all high-
ways in this State at such locations as may be approved by the Com-
missioner ;

(18) Signs advertising agricultural products and horticultural prod-
ucts, or either, when such products are produced by the person who
erects and maintains the signs; provided, however, that the location and
number of such signs shall be in the sole discretion of the Commissioner ;

(19) Signs advertising only the name, time and place of bona fide
agricultural, county, district or State fairs. together with announcements
of special events in connection therewith which do not consume more than
fifty per centum of the display area of such signs, * provided the person
who posts the signs or causes them to be posted will post a cash bond as
may be prescribed by the Commissioner, adequate to reimburse the Com-
monwealth for the actual cost of removing such signs as are not removed
within thirty days after the last day of the fair so advertised.

§ 33-803. License required of outdoor advertiser.—No person shall
engage or continue in the business of outdoor advertising in this State
outside of the corporate limits of municipalities 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 * one hundred
dollars per annum, payable annually in advance. Applications for licenses,
or renewal of licenses, shall be made on forms furnished by the Commis-
sioner, shall contain such information as the Commissioner may require
and shall be accompanied by the annual fee. Licenses granted under this
section shall expire on the thirty-first day of December of each year and
shall not be prorated. Applications for 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 require 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.

§ 33-308. Applications for permits; fees.—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 advertisement or advertising structure it is proposed to
post, display, erect or maintain and its actual or proposed location with
sufficient accuracy to enable the Commissioner to identify such advertise-
ment or advertising structure and to find its actual or proposed location.

Each application shall be accompanied by an application fee in an
amount determined as follows on the basis of the area of the advertisement
or advertising structure for which the permit is sought, according to the
following schedule:

(1) Seventy-five cents if a single faced sign and such area does not
exceed seventy-four square feet, and one dollar if a double faced sign
the area of which does not exceed seventy-four square feet;

(2) Two dollars and fifty cents if such area exceeds * seventy-four
square feet but does not exceed four hundred and twenty-four square feet;

(3) * Four dollars if such area exceeds four hundred and twenty-
pour square feet but does not exceed six hundred and twenty-four square

eet; an

(4) An additional one dollar and twenty-five cents for each two
hundred square feet of such area in excess of six hundred and twenty-
four square feet.

In the computation of fees under this section each side of an advertise-
ment or advertising structure used or constructed to be used shall be
separately considered.

The fee shall be retained by the Commissioner if the permit is issued.
If the permit is refused, the Commissioner shall refund one-half the appli-
cation fee to the applicant if the application fee does not exceed one dollar;
if the application fee exceeds one dollar the Commissioner shall upon
refusal of the permit return to the applicant all of the application fee in
excess of one dollar.

Each application shall be accompanied by the written consent, or in
lieu thereof a copy certified by an officer authorized to take acknowledg-
ments to deeds in this State, of the owner of the real property upon which
such advertisement or advertising structure is to be erected, used, main-
tained, 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.

§ 33-309. Duration and renewal of permit.—FExcept as provided in
§ 88-312, permits issued hereunder shall run for the calendar year, and may
be renewed upon application made upon forms furnished by the Commis-
sioner and the payment of the same fee required to be paid upon application
for a permit. * Permits will not be extended or renewed in cases where the
permittee has not exercised the privilege of erecting such advertising
structure or displayed such advertisement during the period for which the
permit was issued. Annual permits issued after December fifteenth will
cover the following calendar year.

§ 33-310. Area of advertising structure.—The area of an advertising
structure * shall be determined from its outside measurements, excluding
as a part thereof, the height and overall width of supports and supporting
structure and any other portion or portions thereof beneath the normal
area upon which an advertisement is posted or intended to be posted. *

§ 33-312. Temporary permit.—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 Com-
missioner shall issue to such applicant a temporary permit, together with
the proper identification number to be attached to such advertisement or
advertising structure, which temporary permit shall expire sixty days
from the date of its issue. Applications for temporary permits must indi-
cate the county and route on which the advertisement or advertising
structure its to be located and must be accompanied by a fee of one dollar
to cover the cost of issuance of the temporary permit. If within such
sixty days, the applicant shall file with the Commissioner an application
setting forth all of the information required in § 33-308, together with the
required fees, the Commissioner shall issue to such applicant a permit.
In the event that the permit is not issued, the fees submitted shall be
returned, except the one dollar for the temporary permit.

§ 33-314. Transfer of licenses and permits to successor concerns.—
Any license or permit issued pursuant to this article may be transferred to
any person who acquires as a successor the business of the person for whom
such license or permit was issued *.

§ 33-317. Certain advertisements or structures prohibited.—No ad-
vertisement or advertising structure shall be erected, maintained or
operated:

(1) 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, public playground,
national forest or State forest, outside the limits of any municipality;

(2) Which involves motion or rotation of any part of the structure or
displays intermittent lights within one hundred feet of the nearest edge
of the pavement of any highway;

3) Which uses the words “stop” or “danger” prominently displayed
or presents or implies the need or requirement of stopping or the existence
of danger, or which is a copy or imitation of official signs;

(5) Which advertises any county, city, town, village, historic place
or shrine without the consent, in writing, of such county, city, town or
village or of the owner of such historic place or shrine.

(6) Which is mobile and is designed to and effectively does distract
the attention of passing motorists by flashing lights, loud and blatant
noises or movable objects;

(7) Which involve red, green or amber lights or reflectorized material
and which resemble traffic signal lights or traffic control signs;

(8) Within fifteen feet of the nearest edge of the pavement of any
highway;

§ 33-321. Any advertisement or advertising structure which is
erected, used, maintained, operated, posted or displayed in violation of
§§ 83-817 or 33-818 or * for which no permit has been obtained where such
is required, or after revocation or more than thirty days after expiration
of * a permit, or * which, whether or not excepted under the provisions
of § 33-302, is not kept in a good general condition and in a reasonably
good state of repair and is not, after thirty days’ written notice to the
person erecting, using, maintaining, posting or displaying the same, put
into good general condition and in a reasonably good state of repair, is
hereby declared to be a public and private nuisance and * may be forth-
with removed, obliterated or abated by the Commissioner or his repre-
sentatives. The Commissioner may collect the cost of such removal,
obliteration or abatement from the person erecting, using, maintaining,
operating, posting or displaying such advertisement or advertising
structure.

2. § 33-8315 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.
3. The provisions of § 33-317, as hereby amended, shall be in force
on and after January one, nineteen hundred fifty-nine. All other provi-
sions of this act shall become effective July one, nineteen hundred and
fifty-four.