CHAPTER 663

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 88-298, 88-817 and 88-817.1, as amended,
of the Code of Virginia, relating to Outdoor Advertising. rH 152
]

Approved April 6, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 83-298, 33-317 and 33-317.1, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 33-298. (a) In order to promote the safety, convenience and en-
joyment of travel on and protection of the public investment in highways
within this State, to attract tourists and promote the prosperity, economic
well-being and general welfare of the State, and to preserve and enhance
the natural scenic beauty or aesthetic features of the highways and ad-
jacent areas, the General Assembly declares it to be the policy of this
State that the erection and maintenance of outdoor advertising in areas
adjacent to the rights-of-way of the highways within this State shall be
regulated in accordance with the terms of this act and regulations pro-
mulgated by the State Highway Commission pursuant thereto.

(6) The following terms, wherever used or referred to in this article,
shall have the following meanings unless a different meaning clearly ap-
pears from the context:

(1) “Advertisement” means any writing, printing, picture, paint-
ing, display, emblem, drawing, sign or similar device which is posted or
displayed 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, enter-
tainment 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 ad-
vertisement 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-
(7) “Post” means post, display, print, paint, burn, nau, 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, museum or shrine” includes only places that
are maintained wholly at public expense or by a nonprofit organization;
(11) * “Information Center’ means an area or site established and
maintained at rest areas for the purpose of informing the public of
places of interest within the State and providing such other information
as the State Highway Commission may consider desirable;

(12) * “Rest Area’ means an area or site established and main-
tained within or adjacent to the right-of-way or under public supervision
or control, for the convenience of the traveling public;

(183) “Centerline of the highway” means a line equidistant from the
edges of the median separating the main-traveled ways of a * divided
highway, or the centerline of the main-traveled way of a nondivided * high-
way;

(14) “Interchange” means a grade separated intersection with one
or more turning roadways for travel between intersection legs, or an
intersection 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 a * highway
on which through traffic is carried. In the case of a divided * 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) * Federal-aid primary highway means any highway within that
portion of the State Highway System as established and maintained under
Article 2, Chapter 1, Title 33 of this Code, including extensions of such
system within municipalities, which has been approved by the Secretary
of Commerce pursuant to subsection (b) of § 108 of Title 28, United
States Code.

(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, paint-
ing, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing which
is designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, any part of the
advertising or informative contents of which is visible from any * high-

way ;

(21) “Trade Name” shall include brand name, trademark, distinc-
tive symbol, or other similar device or thing used to identify particular
products 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;

190A\ “Uicthle” maane canahle of heing caon (whothar ar not legible)
distance measured along a line normal or perpendicular to the centerline
of the highway :

§ 33-817. No advertisement or advertising structure shall be
erected, maintained or operated:

(1) Within * six hundred sixty feet of the nearest edge of the
right-of-way of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Colonial National Park-
way * , the Mount Vernon Boulevard, or any other parkway within this
State or within * six hundred sixty feet of any public cemetery, public
park reservation, public playground, national forest or State forest, out-
side the limits of any municipality ; provided, however, that any advertise-
ment or advertising structure which is lawfully in place on the effective
date of this act and which does not conform to the six hundred sixty
foot distance requirement may be maintained for the life of such ad-
vertisement or advertising structure; 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 of the pavement of any highway; or

(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 on any highway, or which is a copy or imitation of official
highway 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 dis-
tract 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 ob-
struct 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; or

(12) Which advertises activities which are illegal under State or
federal laws or regulations in effect at the location of such sign or ad-
vertisement or at the location of such activities; or

(13) Which is obsolete or inconsistent with this act or regulations
adopted by the State Highway Commission pursuant to this act.

_ _§ 83-317.1. (a) Notwithstanding the territoria] limitation set out
In § 33-300, no sign or * advertisement which is visible * from the main-
traveled way or * any interstate or federal-ata primary * highway shall be
erected, maintained, or displayed within * siz hundred sixty feet of the
mearest edge of the right-of-way of any highway within either system,
except as provided in subsections (b) and (c).

(b) The following signs may be erected * , maintained * and dts-
played within six hundred sixty feet of any Interstate or federal-aid
primary highway:

Class 1—Official Signs.—Directional * and other official signs * and
notices * , which signs and notices shall include, but not be limited to,
signs and notices pertaining to the availability of food, lodging, * vehicle
service and tourist information, natural wonders, scenic areas, museums
and historic attractions, as authorized or required by law. The State
Highway Commission shall determine the type, lighting, size, location * ,
number and other requirements of signs of this class * .

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
any such signs, which are located adjacent to and within six hundred sixty
feet of an Interstate highway and do not lie in commercial or industrial
zones within the boundaries of incorporated municipalities, as such bounda-
ries existed on September twenty-one, nineteen hundred fifty-nine, wherem
the use of real property adjacent to the Interstate System is subject to
municipal regulation or control, or in areas where land use as of September
twenty-one, nineteen hundred fifty-nine was clearly established by State
law as industrial or commercial, shall comply with the following requtre-
ments:

(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 in 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
identifies any service rendered or product sold shall be erected or main-
tained unless the name of the advertised activity is displayed as con-
spicuously as such trade name.

Class 3 —* Other Signs.—Any signs or advertisements which are
located within areas adjacent to any Interstate or federal-aid primary
highway which are zoned industrial or commercial under authority of
State law, or in unzoned commercial or industrial areas as determined by
the State Highway Commission from actual land uses. The State Highway
Commission shall determine the size, lighting and spacing of signs of this
class, provided that such determination shall be no more restrictive than
valid federal requirements on the same subject.

(c) * In order to provide information in the specific interest of the
traveling public, the State Highway Commission is hereby authorized to
maintain maps and to permit informational directories and advertising
pamphlets to be made available at rest areas, and to establish information
wenters at rest areas for the purpose of informing the public of places

, a eee
Interstate or federal-aid primary highway on the effective date of this
act and which are not in conformity with the provisions contained herein
shall not be required to be removed until July one, nineteen hundred
seventy. Any other signs or advertisements lawfully erected which do not
conform to this act shall not be required to be removed until the end
of the fourth year after they become nonconforming.

e) * The State Highway Commissioner is authorized to acquire
by purchase, gift or the power of eminent domain and to pay just com-
pensation upon the removal of the following signs or advertisements:

(1) Those lawfully in existence on October twenty-two, nineteen
hundred sixty-five.

(2) Those lawfully on any highway made a part of the Interstate
System or approved by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to subsection
(b) of § 108 of Title 28, United States Code, on or after October twenty-
two, nineteen hundred sixty-five, and before January one, nineteen hundred
sixty-eight; and

(8) Those lawfully erected on or after January one, nineteen hun-
dred sixty-eight.

Such compensation is authorized to be paid only for the taking from
the owner of such sign or advertisement of all right, title, leasehold and
interest in such sign or advertisement, and the taking from the owner
of the real property on which the sign or advertisement is located, of
the right to erect and maintain such sign or advertisement thereon.

The Commissioner shall not be required to expend any funds under this
section unless and until federal-aid matching funds are made available for
this purpose.

2. The provisions of this act are severable and if any of its provisions
shall be held unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, the
decision of such court shall not affect or impair any of the remaining
provisions.

3. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.