                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

POLICY; DEFINITIONS (§ 33.2-1200)

A. In order to promote the safety, convenience, and enjoyment of travel on and
protection of the public investment in highways within the Commonwealth, attract
tourists and promote the prosperity, economic well-being, and general welfare of
the Commonwealth, and preserve and enhance the natural scenic beauty or
aesthetic features of the highways and adjacent areas, the General Assembly
declares it to be the policy of the Commonwealth that the erection and
maintenance of outdoor advertising in areas adjacent to the rights-of-way of the
highways within the Commonwealth shall be regulated in accordance with the terms
of this article and regulations promulgated by the Board pursuant thereto.

B. As used in this article, unless the context requires a different meaning:
			&#8220;Advertisement&#8221; means any writing, printing, picture, painting,
display, emblem, drawing, sign, or similar device that is posted or displayed
outdoors on real property and is intended to invite or to draw the attention of
or solicit the patronage or support of the public to any goods, merchandise,
real or personal property, business, services, entertainment, or amusement
manufactured, produced, bought, sold, conducted, furnished, or dealt in by any
person. &#8220;Advertisement&#8221; includes any part of an advertisement
recognizable as such.			&#8220;Advertising structure&#8221; 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 purpose of furnishing a background or base or support upon which an
advertisement may be posted or displayed.			&#8220;Area of an advertising
structure&#8221; means the area 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.			&#8220;Billboard sign&#8221; means any sign, advertisement, or
advertising structure as defined in this section owned by a person, firm, or
corporation in the business of outdoor advertising.			&#8220;Business of outdoor
advertising&#8221; 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 structures or
the actual posting of advertisements. &#8220;Business of outdoor
advertising&#8221; does not include the leasing or rental of advertising
structures or advertisements used to advertise products, services, or
entertainment sold or provided on the premises where the advertising structures
or advertisement is located.			&#8220;Centerline of the highway&#8221; 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
highway.			&#8220;Distance from edge of a right-of-way&#8221; means the
horizontal distance measured along a line normal or perpendicular to the
centerline of the highway.			&#8220;Federal-aid primary highway&#8221; means any
highway within that portion of the primary state highway system as established
and maintained under Article 2 (&#xA7; 33.2-310 et seq.) of Chapter 3, including
extensions of such system within municipalities, that has been approved by the
Secretary of Transportation pursuant to 23 U.S.C. &#xA7; 103(b), as that system
existed on June 1, 1991.			&#8220;Highway&#8221; means every way or place of
whatever nature open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel
in the Commonwealth.			&#8220;Historic place, museum, or shrine&#8221; includes
only places that are maintained wholly at public expense or by a nonprofit
organization.			&#8220;Information center&#8221; means an area or site
established and maintained at rest areas for the purpose of informing the public
of places of interest within the Commonwealth and providing such other
information as the Commonwealth may consider
desirable.			&#8220;Interchange&#8221; 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.			&#8220;Lawfully erected&#8221; means any sign that was erected pursuant
to the issuance of a permit from the Commissioner of Highways under &#xA7;
33.2-1208, unless the local governing body has evidence of noncompliance with
ordinances in effect at the time the sign was erected.			&#8220;Legible&#8221;
means capable of being read without visual aid by a person of normal visual
acuity.			&#8220;Maintain&#8221; means to allow to exist.			&#8220;Main traveled
way&#8221; 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.
&#8220;Main traveled way&#8221; does not include such facilities as frontage
roads, turning roadways, or parking areas.			&#8220;National Highway
System&#8221; means the federal-aid highway system referenced in 23 U.S.C.
&#xA7; 103(b), and regulations adopted pursuant thereto. For the purpose of this
article, outdoor advertising controls on the National Highway System shall be
implemented as those highways are designated and approved by congressional
action or designation by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and such
designation and approval shall be kept on file in the central office of the
Department of Transportation and placed in the minutes of the Commonwealth
Transportation Board by the Commissioner of Highways. Prior to congressional
approval or designation by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, highways
classified as National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, Dwight D.
Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, Interstate
System, or federal-aid primary highway as defined in this section shall be
considered as the National Highway System.			&#8220;Nonconforming sign,&#8221;
&#8220;nonconforming advertisement,&#8221; or &#8220;nonconforming advertising
structure&#8221; means one that was lawfully erected adjacent to any highway in
the Commonwealth but that does not comply with the provisions of state law,
state regulations, or ordinances adopted by local governing bodies passed at a
later date or that later fails to comply with state law, state regulations, or
ordinances adopted by local governing bodies due to changed
conditions.			&#8220;Person&#8221; includes an individual, partnership,
association, or corporation.			&#8220;Post&#8221; means post, display, print,
paint, burn, nail, paste, or otherwise attach.			&#8220;Real property&#8221;
includes any property physically attached or annexed to real property in any
manner whatsoever.			&#8220;Rest area&#8221; means an area or site established
and maintained within or adjacent to the right-of-way or under public
supervision or control for the convenience of the traveling
public.			&#8220;Scenic area&#8221; means any public park or area of particular
scenic beauty or historical significance designated as a scenic area by the
Board.			&#8220;Sign&#8221; means any outdoor sign, display, device, figure,
painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing that is
designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, any part of the advertising
or informative contents of which is visible from any highway.			&#8220;Trade
name&#8221; includes a brand name, trademark, distinctive symbol, or other
similar device or thing used to identify particular products or
services.			&#8220;Traveled way&#8221; means the portion of a roadway for the
movement of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders.			&#8220;Turning roadway&#8221;
means a connecting roadway for traffic turning between two intersection legs of
an interchange.			&#8220;Urban area&#8221; means an urbanized area or, in the
case of an urbanized area encompassing more than one state, that part of the
urbanized area within the Commonwealth, or an urban place.			&#8220;Urbanized
area&#8221; means an area so designated by the U.S. Census Bureau, within
boundaries fixed by the Commissioner of Highways, in his discretion, in
cooperation with the governing bodies of the localities affected and the
appropriate federal authority. Such boundaries shall, at a minimum, encompass
the entire urbanized area within a state as designated by the U.S. Census
Bureau.			&#8220;Urban place&#8221; means an area so designated by the U.S.
Census Bureau having a population of 5,000 or more and not within any urbanized
area, within boundaries fixed by the Commissioner of Highways, in his
discretion, in cooperation with the governing bodies of the localities affected
and the appropriate federal authority. Such boundaries shall, at a minimum,
encompass the entire urban place designated by the U.S. Census
Bureau.			&#8220;Virginia byway&#8221; and &#8220;scenic highway&#8221; means
those highways designated by the Board pursuant to &#xA7; 33.2-405. For the
purposes of this article, a Virginia byway means a scenic byway as referenced in
23 U.S.C. &#xA7; 131(s).			&#8220;Visible&#8221; means capable of being seen
(whether or not legible) without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity.

HISTORY: Code 1950, §§ 33-298, 33-310; 1954, c. 588; 1960, c. 406; 1962, c.
176; 1966, c. 663; 1970, c. 322, §§ 33.1-351, 33.1-363; 1976, c. 14; 1980, c.
275; 1984, c. 750; 1993, c. 538; 1996, c. 777; 2000, cc. 432, 449; 2002, c. 672;
2012, c. 145; 2013, c. 127; 2014, c. 805.