27:5-7. Definitions

3. As used in this act:

"Advertisement or advertising" means the use of any outdoor display or sign upon real property within public view, which is intended to invite or draw the attention of the public to any goods, merchandise, property, business, services, entertainment, amusement or other commercial or noncommercial messages.

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Transportation.

"Department" means the Department of Transportation.

"Highway" means any road, thoroughfare, street, boulevard, lane, court, trailway, right-of-way or easement used for, or laid out and intended for public passage of vehicles or persons.

"Interstate System" means those highways constructed within this State and approved by the Secretary of Transportation of the United States as an official portion of the national System of Interstate and Defense Highways, pursuant to the provisions of Title 23 of the United States Code.

"Limited access highway" means a highway especially designed for through traffic, over which abutters have no easement or right of light, air or direct access by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon that limited access highway.

"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 separate roadway carrying traffic in opposite directions is a main traveled way. "Main-traveled way" shall not include frontage roads, turning roadways, or parking areas.

"Primary System" means any highway so designated by the State of New Jersey and approved by the federal authorities pursuant to Title 23 of the United States Code.

"Protected areas" mean all areas inside the boundaries of this State which are adjacent to and within 660 feet of the edge of the right-of-way of highways in the Interstate and Primary Systems and those areas inside the boundaries of this State which are visible from the highway but beyond 660 feet of the edge of the right-of-way of the Interstate and Primary Systems and are outside urban areas.

"Public view" means the area visible to persons traveling or operating motor vehicles at the legal speed limit on a highway.

"Sign" means any outdoor display or advertising on real property within public view which is intended to attract, or which does attract, the attention of pedestrians or the operators, attendants, or passengers of motor vehicles using the roads, highways, and other public thoroughfares and places, and shall include any writing, printing, painting, display, emblem, drawing, sign, or other device whether placed on the ground, rocks, trees, tree stumps or other natural structures, or on a building, structure, signboard, billboard, wallboard, roofboard, frame, support, fence, or elsewhere, and any lighting or other accessories used in conjunction therewith .

"Urban area" means a place as designated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census having a population of 5,000 or more within boundaries to be fixed by responsible State and local officials in cooperation with each other, subject to approval by the Secretary of Transportation of the United States. The boundaries shall, at a minimum, encompass the entire place designated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

"Visible" means capable of being seen and comprehended without visual aid by persons traveling on the highway.

L.1991,c.413,s.3.