CHAPTER 406

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 88-298, 38-802, 38-817 and 88-821, as
amended, of the Code of Virginia, and to amend the Code of Virginia
by adding three sections numbered 88-817.1, 88-817.2 and 88-817.8, the
amended sections relating to the regulation of advertisements and
advertising structures along or adjacent to State highways, and the
new sections relating to the regulation of advertising along or adjacent
to the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, to the
acquiring of certain easements, and to the exercise of the power of
eminent domain.

[H 151]

Approved March 30, 1960

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 33-298, 33-302, 33-317 and 33-321, as amended, of the Code
of Virginia, be amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia be
ame idee by adding three sections numbered 83-817.1, 33-817.2 and 83-317.8
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 out-
door 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 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;

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

(6) “Person” includes an individual, partnership, association or cor-
poration ;

(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 ;

(9) “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 ;

(11) “Entrance roadway” means any public road or turning road-
way, including acceleration lanes, by which traffic may enter the main-
traveled way of an Interstate highway from the general road system
within this State, irrespective of whether traffic may also leave the main-
traveled way by such road or turning roadway;

(12) “Exit roadway” means any public road or turning roadway,
including deceleration lanes, by which traffic may leave the main-traveled
way of an Interstate highway to reach the general road system within
this State, irrespective of whether traffic may also enter the main-traveled
way by such road or turning roadway;

(18) “Centerline of the Highway” means a line equidistant from the
edges of the median separating the main-traveled ways of an interstate
divided highway, or the centerline of the main-traveled way of a nondivided
interstate highway;

(14) “Interchange” means a grade separated intersection with one or
more turning roadways for travel between intersection legs, or an inter-
section at grade, where two or more highways join or cross;

(15) “Legible’ means capable of being read without visual aid by a
person of normal visual acuity;

(16) “Maintain” means to allow to exist;

(17) “Main-traveled way’ means the traveled way of an interstate
highway on which through traffic is carried. In the case of a divided
interstate highway, the traveled way of each of the separated roadways for
traffic in opposite directions is a main-traveled way. It does not include
such facilities as frontage roads, turning roadways, or parking areas;

(17a) “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways’ and
“Interstate System” mean the system presently defined in subsection (d)
of Section 108 of Title 23, United States Code;

(18) “Protected Area” means all areas which are adjacent to and
within six hundred sixty feet of the edge of the right of way of any
highway which is a part of the National System of Interstate and Defense
Highways which was acquired for right of way subsequent to July 1, 1956
(an area shall be deemed to have been so acquired if, within such area, no
line normal or perpendicular to the centerline of the highway and extending
to both edges of the right of way will intersect any right of way acquired
for right of way on or before July 1, 1956), which do not lie in commercial
or industrial zones within the presently existing boundaries of incorporated
municipalities wherein the use of real property adjacent to the Interstate
System is subject to municipal regulation or control, or which do not lte tn
other areas where the land is clearly established by State or local law as
industrial or commercial;

(19) “Scenic Area” means any public park, area of particular scenic
beauty or historical significance designated as a scenic area by the State
Highway Commission;

(20) “Sign” means any outdoor sign, display, device, figure, patnt-
ing, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing which 1s
designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, any part of the adver-
tising or informative contents of which is visible from any place on the
main-traveled way of the Interstate System.

(21) “Trade Name” shall include brand name, trademark, distinctive
symbol, or other similar device or thing used to identify particular prod-
ucts or services;

(22) “Traveled Way” means the portion of a roadway for the move-
ment of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders;

(23) “Turning roadway” means a connecting roadway for traffic
turning between two intersection legs of an interchange;

(24) “Visible” means capable of being seen (whether or not legible)
without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity;

(25) “Distance from edge of a right-of-way” shall be the horizontal
distance measured along a line normal or perpendicular to the centerline
of the highway;

(26) “Distance Along Centerline” shall be measured between two
vertical planes which are normal or perpendicular to and intersect the
centerline of the highway, and which pass through the termini of a meas-
ured distance.

§ 33-302. The following signs and advertisements, if securely at-
tached 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 §§ 38-317.1
and 338-321:

(1) Advertisements securely attached to a place of business or resi-
dence, 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 two hundred and fifty feet of such place of business or residence
and relating solely to merchandise, services or entertainment sold, pro-
duced, manufactured or furnished at such place of business or residence;

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, produced,
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 official
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 * Board of Conservation and Economic Develop
ment and signs, notices or symbols erected by the United States govern
ment 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 Commissione:
for the safety of the public or 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 t
location, direction and landings and conditions affecting safety in aviatio1
erected or authorized by the Commissioner;

(9) Signs containing sixteen square feet or less and bearing ar
announcement of any county, town, village or city, or historic place 01
shrine, situated in this State, advertising itself or local industries, meet
ings, buildings or attractions, provided the same is maintained wholly a’
public expense, or at the expense of such historic place or shrine;

(11) Signs or notices containing two square feet or less, placed at <
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, pro-
vided such signs or notices do not exceed a reasonable number in the dis-
cretion 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 corporate
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
highways in this State at such locations as may be approved by the
Commissioner; .

(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.

§ 33-317. No advertisement 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 ; or

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

3) Which uses the words “stop” or “danger” prominently displaved
or presents or implies the need or requirement of stopping or the existence
of danger on any highway, or which is a copy or imitation of official high-
way signs; or

(5) Which, within visible distance of any highway, 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; or

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

(7) Which involve red, green or amber lights or reflectorized ma-
terial and which resemble traffic signal lights or traffic control signs and
is within visible distance of any highway; or

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

(9) At any public road intersection in such manner as would obstruct
the clear vision in either direction between a point on the center line of
the side road twenty feet from the nearest edge of the pavement of the
main road and points on the main road four hundred feet distant, measured
along the nearest edge of the pavement of the main road; or

(10) At any grade intersection of a public road and a railroad in
such manner as would obstruct the clear vision in either direction within
triangular areas formed by (a) a point at the center of the railroad-public
road intersection, (b) a point on the public road four hundred feet from
the center of the railroad-public road intersection as measured along the
center of the public road, and (c) a point on the railroad five hundred
feet from the center of the railroad-public road intersection as measured
along the center of the railroad; or

(11) At or near any curve in a road in such a manner as to obstruct
the clear vision of traffic from any one point on such curve to any other
point not more than four hundred feet apart, as measured between each
point from the nearest edge of the pavement. *

§ 88-817.1. Special provisions pertaining to the National System of
Interstate and Defense Highways. (a) Notwithstanding the territorial
limitation set out in § 33-800, no sign or advertising structure which its
visible, as defined in paragraph (24) of § 88-298, from the main-traveled
way of the Interstate System shall be erected, maintained, or displayed
within a protected area which:

(1) Advertises activities which are illegal under State or Federal laws
or regulations in effect at the location of such sign or advertising structure
or at the location of such activities;

(2) If a sign, is not securely affixed to a substantial advertising
structure;

(8) Is obsolete, or is not clean and in good repatr;

(4) Is not consistent with this section or regulations adopted by the
State Highway Commission.

(b) The following signs may be erected or maintained in protected
areas:

Class 1—Official Signs.—Directional signs, historical markers, signs
indicating the availability of food, lodging and vehicle service, or other
official signs or notices erected and maintained by public officers or agencies
pursuant to and in accordance with direction or authorization contained in
State or Federal law, for the purpose of carrying out an official duty or
responsibility. The State Highway Commission shall determine the type,
size, location and number of signs of this class which may be erected.

Class 2—On premise Signs.—Signs not prohibited by other parts of
this article which are consistent with the applicable provisions of this
section and which advertise the sale or lease of, or activities being con-
ducted upon, the real property where the signs are located; provided, that

(1) Not more than one sign advertising the sale or lease of the same
property may be erected or maintained in such manner as to be visible to
traffic proceeding in any one direction on any one Interstate highway;

(2) Not more than one sign, visible to traffic proceeding tn any one
direction on any one Interstate highway and advertising activities being
conducted upon the real property where the sign is located, may be erected
or maintained more than fifty feet from the advertised activity, and no
such sign may be located more than two hundred fifty feet from the center
of the advertised activity; and

(3) No sign, except one which is not more than fifty feet from the
advertised activity, that displays any trade name which refers to or identt-
fies any service rendered or product sold shall be erected or maintained
unless the name of the advertised activity is displayed as conspicuously
as such trade name. ;

Class 3—Signs in the Specific Interest of the Traveling Public.—
Signs otherwise conforming to law which are designed to give information
in the specific interest of the traveling public, wnctuding only signs giving
information about public places operated by the Federal, or the State gov-
ernment or any political subdivision thereof, natural phenomena, historical
sites, areas of natural scenic beauty or naturally suited for outdoor recre-
ation, designated as such by the State Highway Commission.

(c) (1) In protected areas in advance of an intersection of the main-
traveled way of an Interstate highway and an exit roadway. Class 8 signs
visible to traffic on the highway approaching such intersection may not
exceed the following number:

Distance from Intersection Number of Signs
0-2 Miles 0

2-5 Miles 6 ,
More than 5 Miles Average of 1 per mile

The specified distance shall be measured to the nearest point of the inter-
section of the traveled way of the exit roadway and the main-traveled way
of the highway.

(2) Subject to the other provisions of this subsection (c), not more
than two such signs may be erected or maintained within any mile distance
measured from any point, and no such signs may be erected or maintained
less than one thousand feet apart.

(8) Such signs may not be erected or maintained in protected areas
upon any part of the width of which 1s constructed an entrance or exit
roadway.

(4) Such signs visible to Interstate highway traffic which is ap-
proaching or has passed an entrance roadway may not be erected or main-
tained in protected areas for one thousand feet beyond the furthest point
of the intersection between the traveled way of such entrance roadway and
the main-traveled way of the Interstate highway.

(5) No such signs may be erected or maintained in scenic areas.

(6) Not more than one such sign advertising activities being con-
ducted as a single enterprise or giving information about a single place
may be erected or maintained in such manner as to be visible to traffic
moving in any one direction on any one Interstate highway.

(d) No sign may be permitted which attempts or appears to attempt
to direct the movement of traffic or which interferes with, imitates or
resembles any official traffic sign, signal or device.

(e) No sign may be permitted which prevents the driver of a vehicle
from having a clear and unobstructed view of official signs and approach-
ing or merging traffic.
(f) No lighting may be permitted to be used in any way im con-
nection with any sign unless it is so effectively shielded as to prevent
beams or rays of light from being directed at any portion of the main-
traveled way of the Interstate System, or is of such low intensity or bril-
liance as not to cause glare or to impair the vision of the driver of any
motor vehicle, or to otherwise interfere with any driver’s operation of a
motor vehicle.

(g) No sign may be permitted which moves or has any animated or
moving parts or which contains, includes, or is illuminated by any flashing,
intermittent or moving lights.

(h) No advertisement may be erected or maintained on any tree nor
painted or drawn on any rock or other natural feature. _

(i) No sign may be permitted to exceed twenty feet in length, width
or height, or one hundred fifty square feet in area, including border and
trim but excluding supports, except Class 2 signs not more than fifty feet
from, and advertising activities being conducted upon, the real property
where the sign 71s located.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, this § 33-317.1 shall
not apply to: (1) any area adjacent to any segment of Interstate Highway
constructed upon any portion of right of way acquired for right of way
purposes prior to July 1,1956, nor (2) to any area adjacent to any segment
of Interstate Highway which traverses commercial or industrial zones
within the presently existing boundaries of incorporated municipalities
wherein the use of real property adjacent to the Interstate System is sub-
ject to municipal regulation or control, or which traverses other areas
where the land use is clearly established by State or local law as industrial
or commercial.

This § 38-817.1 shall not apply to any sign or advertising structure
erected under permit prior to the date of enactment of this act; provided,
however, that any permit granted for the erection or maintenance of any
sign or advertising structure in conflict with the provisions of this § $8-
817.1 shall automatically expire on June 30, 1961, and any such permit
which shall expire between the date of enactment of this act and June 30,
1961, shall not be renewed.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, as to any
portion of the Interstate System which was completed and opened to traffic
prior to September one, nineteen hundred fifty-eight, the following provi-
sions shall apply until July one, nineteen hundred sixty-two:

No advertisement or advertising structure shall be erected, maintained
or operated within five hundred feet of any such portion of the Interstate
System, except:

(a) Upon a location that is within one mile of an interchange. This
distance to be measured in a straight line from the center line of the inter-
secting roadway, provided that:

(1) The advertisement relates to business establishments offering
essential services to motorists, limited to automotive services, lodging, and
food serving establishments located within ten miles of the interchange at
which the sign is posted or the next interchange in either direction on the
Interstate System, along which such signs are erected;

(2) The advertisement or advertising structure does not exceed three
hundred square feet in area and conforms to standard designs and colors,
as approved by the State Highway Department; and

(8)(a) The number of signs authorized to be erected by the owner of
a business is limited to four for each business establishment;

(b) Signs advertising a Virginia scenic or historical place, whether
or not such place 1s maintained wholly at public expense, or by a nonprofit
organization, or 1s operated as a commercial enterprise;
(c) Signs advertising the sale of property by the owner thereof,
located on the property to be sold; and .

(d) Signs which have been erected prior to June 27, 1958.

§ 38-817.2. The State Highway Commission may issue regulations,
and is authorized to enter into agreements with the Secretary of Commerce
of the United States as provided in 28 U. S.C. § 181, with respect to the
regulation and control of signs, advertisements and advertising structures
in conformity with § 88-817.1; provided that such agreements shall not
prevent the General Assembly of Virginia from amending or repealing
§ $3-317.1 at any time. ;

§ 33-317.8. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the provt-
sions of § 33-317.1 shall not apply to areas adjacent to any right of way
acquired between July one, nineteen hundred fifty-six, and the effective
date of this act, until such time as the State Highway Commission has
purchased or acquired by eminent domain an easement restricting the
erection or maintenance of signs or advertising structures along such right
of way in conformity with the provisions of § 33-317.1, and the State High-
way Commission is hereby authorized and empowered to acquire such
easements.

§ 83-821. Any advertisement or advertising structure which is
erected, used, maintained, operated, posted or displayed in violation of §§
33-317, 38-317.1 or 38-318 or for which no permit has been obtained where
such is required, or after revocation or more than thirty days after expira-
tion 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 de-
clared to be a public and private nuisance and may be forthwith removed,
obliterated or abated by the Commissioner or his representatives. The
Commissioner may collect the cost of such removal, obliteration or abate-
ment from the person erecting, using, maintaining, operating, posting or
displaying such advertisement or advertising structure.

The provisions of this act are declared to be severable and if any pro-
vision of this act is held to be invalid by any court of competent jurisdic-
tion, the remainder of the act shall continue in full force and effect.