(a) No outdoor advertising sign shall be erected or maintained within three hundred feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way and visible from the main-traveled way of the highway, except the following:

(1) Official signs and notices erected and maintained by the State or local governmental authorities pursuant to laws or ordinances for the purpose of carrying out an official duty or responsibility, and historical markers authorized by law and erected by State or local governmental authorities or nonprofit historical societies.

(2) Public utility warning and informational signs, notices and markers which are customarily erected and maintained by publicly or privately owned utilities as essential to their operations.

(3) Signs and notices of service clubs and religious organizations relating to meetings of nonprofit service clubs or charitable organizations or associations, or religious services; provided, that such signs do not exceed eight square feet in area.

(4) Directional signs containing directional information about public places owned and operated by Federal, State or local governments, public or privately owned natural phenomena, historical, cultural, educational and religious sites, and areas of natural scenic beauty or naturally suited for outdoor recreation, deemed to be in the public interest.

(5) Signs, displays and devices advertising the sale or lease of property upon which they are located.

(6) On premises signs, displays and devices advertising activities conducted on the property upon which they are located.

(7) Signs, displays and devices located in areas which are zoned industrial or commercial under authority of State law.

(8) Signs, displays and devices located in unzoned commercial or industrial areas.

(b) Signs shall not be permitted in any of the above categories which imitate or resemble any official traffic sign, signal or device; signs which are erected or maintained upon trees or are printed or drawn upon rocks or other natural features; or signs which are in disrepair.

(c) No sign permitted under items (a)(7) and (a)(8) of this section shall exceed a maximum area of size of twelve hundred square feet, a maximum length of sixty feet, or a maximum height of thirty feet. Signs permitted under items (a)(1), (a)(2) and (a)(4) of this section may not exceed a maximum area of one hundred and fifty square feet. All such dimensions shall include border, trim, cutouts and extensions, but shall exclude decorative bases and supports. Double-faced, back-to-back, or V-type signs shall be considered as one sign. Two sign panels facing in the same direction may be erected on the same structure, provided that the total area of both panels does not exceed the aforesaid maximum.

(d) No sign permitted under this section may be located in such a manner as to obscure or otherwise interfere with the effectiveness of an official traffic sign, signal or device, nor obstruct or interfere with the driver's view of approaching, merging or intersecting traffic; also, no such sign except on premises and FOR SALE or LEASE signs may be located within three hundred feet of any of the following which are adjacent to the highway in areas outside of incorporated municipalities or within one hundred feet on sections inside municipalities.

(1) Public parks of ten acres or more.

(2) Public forests.

(3) Public playgrounds.

(4) Scenic areas designated by the Department of Transportation or other state agency having and exercising such authority.

(e) No sign structure permitted under items (a)(7) and (a)(8) of this section shall be erected within five hundred feet of another such sign structure on the same side of the highway. This subsection shall not apply to advertising displays which are separated by a building or other obstruction in such a manner that only one display located within the minimum spacing distance set forth herein is visible from one point on the highway at any one time.

(f) No sign permitted under this section shall contain, include, or be illuminated by any flashing, intermittent, or moving light or lights, except those giving public service information, such as time, date, temperature, weather, or other similar information. Also, no such sign permitted under this section shall be erected or maintained which is not effectively shielded so as to prevent beams or rays of light from being directed at any portion of the main-traveled way of the highway and which is of such intensity or brilliance as to cause glare or to impair the vision of the driver of any motor vehicle, or which may otherwise interfere with any driver's operation of a motor vehicle. No such sign may be so illuminated that it interferes with the effectiveness of or obscures an official traffic sign, device or signal.

(g) The standards contained in this section pertaining to size, shape, description, lighting, and spacing of outdoor advertising signs permitted in zoned and unzoned commercial and industrial areas shall not apply to such signs lawfully in place on May 6, 1969, nor to such signs erected within six months thereafter under a lease dated prior to May 6, 1969 and recorded on the records of the respective clerk of court or register of mesne conveyance of the county.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 33-595.1; 1969 (56) 187; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1531.