(A) The Department of Transportation may acquire by purchase, gift, or condemnation and shall pay just compensation upon the removal of the following outdoor advertising signs:

(1) those lawfully in existence on November 3, 1971;

(2) those lawfully erected after November 2, 1971.

(B) Compensation may be paid only for the taking from the owner of:

(1) a sign of all right, title, leasehold, and interest in it;

(2) the real property on which the sign is located of the right to erect and maintain a sign on it.

(C) No sign may be removed until the owner of the property on which it is located has been compensated fully for a loss which may be suffered by him as a result of the removal of the sign through the termination of a lease or other financial arrangement with the owner of the sign. The compensation must include damage to the landowner's property occasioned by the removal of the sign. The Department of Transportation is limited to an expenditure of five million dollars for the state's part of just compensation.

(D) Tourist oriented directional signs must be the last to be removed under the terms of this article.

(E) Notwithstanding a county or municipal zoning plan, ordinance, or resolution, outdoor advertising signs conforming to Section 57-25-110, et seq., affected by state highway projects may be relocated pursuant to the federal uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4601, et seq.) to a position which is perpendicular to the right of way of the original sign site, or may be altered so that no portion of the sign overhangs the right of way.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 33-591.6; 1971 (57) 2061; 1987 Act No. 173 Section 41; 1990 Act No. 519, Section 1; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1530; 2000 Act No. 302, Section 1.