23 U.S.C. § 131 : US Code - Section 131: Control of outdoor advertising

Search 23 U.S.C. § 131 : US Code - Section 131: Control of outdoor advertising

(a) The Congress hereby finds and declares that the erection and
maintenance of outdoor advertising signs, displays, and devices in
areas adjacent to the Interstate System and the primary system
should be controlled in order to protect the public investment in
such highways, to promote the safety and recreational value of
public travel, and to preserve natural beauty.
(b) Federal-aid highway funds apportioned on or after January 1,
1968, to any State which the Secretary determines has not made
provision for effective control of the erection and maintenance
along the Interstate System and the primary system of outdoor
advertising signs, displays, and devices which are within six
hundred and sixty feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way and
visible from the main traveled way of the system, and Federal-aid
highway funds apportioned on or after January 1, 1975, or after the
expiration of the next regular session of the State legislature,
whichever is later, to any State which the Secretary determines has
not made provision for effective control of the erection and
maintenance along the Interstate System and the primary system of
those additional outdoor advertising signs, displays, and devices
which are more than six hundred and sixty feet off the nearest edge
of the right-of-way, located outside of urban areas, visible from
the main traveled way of the system, and erected with the purpose
of their message being read from such main traveled way, shall be
reduced by amounts equal to 10 per centum of the amounts which
would otherwise be apportioned to such State under section 104 of
this title, until such time as such State shall provide for such
effective control. Any amount which is withheld from apportionment
to any State hereunder shall be reapportioned to the other States.
Whenever he determines it to be in the public interest, the
Secretary may suspend, for such periods as he deems necessary, the
application of this subsection to a State.
(c) Effective control means that such signs, displays, or devices
after January 1, 1968, if located within six hundred and sixty feet
of the right-of-way and, on or after July 1, 1975, or after the
expiration of the next regular session of the State legislature,
whichever is later, if located beyond six hundred and sixty feet of
the right-of-way located outside of urban areas, visible from the
main traveled way of the system, and erected with the purpose of
their message being read from such main traveled way, shall,
pursuant to this section, be limited to (1) directional and
official signs and notices, which signs and notices shall include,
but not be limited to, signs and notices pertaining to natural
wonders, scenic and historical attractions, which are required or
authorized by law, which shall conform to national standards hereby
authorized to be promulgated by the Secretary hereunder, which
standards shall contain provisions concerning lighting, size,
number, and spacing of signs, and such other requirements as may be
appropriate to implement this section, (2) signs, displays, and
devices advertising the sale or lease of property upon which they
are located, (3) signs, displays, and devices, including those
which may be changed at reasonable intervals by electronic process
or by remote control, advertising activities conducted on the
property on which they are located, (4) signs lawfully in existence
on October 22, 1965, determined by the State, subject to the
approval of the Secretary, to be landmark signs, including signs on
farm structures or natural surfaces, or historic or artistic
significance the preservation of which would be consistent with the
purposes of this section, and (5) signs, displays, and devices
advertising the distribution by nonprofit organizations of free
coffee to individuals traveling on the Interstate System or the
primary system. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "free
coffee" shall include coffee for which a donation may be made, but
is not required.
(d) In order to promote the reasonable, orderly and effective
display of outdoor advertising while remaining consistent with the
purposes of this section, signs, displays, and devices whose size,
lighting and spacing, consistent with customary use is to be
determined by agreement between the several States and the
Secretary, may be erected and maintained within six hundred and
sixty feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way within areas
adjacent to the Interstate and primary systems which are zoned
industrial or commercial under authority of State law, or in
unzoned commercial or industrial areas as may be determined by
agreement between the several States and the Secretary. The States
shall have full authority under their own zoning laws to zone areas
for commercial or industrial purposes, and the actions of the
States in this regard will be accepted for the purposes of this
Act. Whenever a bona fide State, county, or local zoning authority
has made a determination of customary use, such determination will
be accepted in lieu of controls by agreement in the zoned
commercial and industrial areas within the geographical
jurisdiction of such authority. Nothing in this subsection shall
apply to signs, displays, and devices referred to in clauses (2)
and (3) of subsection (c) of this section.
(e) Any sign, display, or device lawfully in existence along the
Interstate System or the Federal-aid primary system on September 1,
1965, which does not conform to this section shall not be required
to be removed until July 1, 1970. Any other sign, display, or
device lawfully erected which does not conform to this section
shall not be required to be removed until the end of the fifth year
after it becomes nonconforming.
(f) The Secretary shall, in consultation with the States, provide
within the rights-of-way for areas at appropriate distances from
interchanges on the Interstate System, on which signs, displays,
and devices giving specific information in the interest of the
traveling public may be erected and maintained. The Secretary may
also, in consultation with the States, provide within the rights-of-
way of the primary system for areas in which signs, displays, and
devices giving specific information in the interest of the
traveling public may be erected and maintained. Such signs shall
conform to national standards to be promulgated by the Secretary.
(g) Just compensation shall be paid upon the removal of any
outdoor advertising sign, display, or device lawfully erected under
State law and not permitted under subsection (c) of this section,
whether or not removed pursuant to or because of this section. The
Federal share of such compensation shall be 75 per centum. Such
compensation shall be paid for the following:
(A) The taking from the owner of such sign, display, or device
of all right, title, leasehold, and interest in such sign,
display, or device; and
(B) The taking from the owner of the real property on which the
sign, display, or device is located, of the right to erect and
maintain such signs, displays, and devices thereon.
(h) All public lands or reservations of the United States which
are adjacent to any portion of the Interstate System and the
primary system shall be controlled in accordance with the
provisions of this section and the national standards promulgated
by the Secretary.
(i) In order to provide information in the specific interest of
the traveling public, the State transportation departments are
authorized to maintain maps and to permit information directories
and advertising pamphlets to be made available at safety rest
areas. Subject to the approval of the Secretary, a State may also
establish information centers at safety rest areas and other travel
information systems within the rights-of-way for the purpose of
informing the public of places of interest within the State and
providing such other information as a State may consider desirable.
The Federal share of the cost of establishing such an information
center or travel information system shall be that which is provided
in section 120 for a highway project on that Federal-aid system to
be served by such center or system.
(j) Any State transportation department which has, under this
section as in effect on June 30, 1965, entered into an agreement
with the Secretary to control the erection and maintenance of
outdoor advertising signs, displays, and devices in areas adjacent
to the Interstate System shall be entitled to receive the bonus
payments as set forth in the agreement, but no such State
transportation department shall be entitled to such payments unless
the State maintains the control required under such agreement:
Provided, That permission by a State to erect and maintain
information displays which may be changed at reasonable intervals
by electronic process or remote control and which provide public
service information or advertise activities conducted on the
property on which they are located shall not be considered a breach
of such agreement or the control required thereunder. Such payments
shall be paid only from appropriations made to carry out this
section. The provisions of this subsection shall not be construed
to exempt any State from controlling outdoor advertising as
otherwise provided in this section.
(k) Subject to compliance with subsection (g) of this section for
the payment of just compensation, nothing in this section shall
prohibit a State from establishing standards imposing stricter
limitations with respect to signs, displays, and devices on the
Federal-aid highway systems than those established under this
section.
(l) Not less than sixty days before making a final determination
to withhold funds from a State under subsection (b) of this
section, or to do so under subsection (b) of section 136, or with
respect to failing to agree as to the size, lighting, and spacing
of signs, displays, and devices or as to unzoned commercial or
industrial areas in which signs, displays, and devices may be
erected and maintained under subsection (d) of this section, or
with respect to failure to approve under subsection (g) of section
136, the Secretary shall give written notice to the State of his
proposed determination and a statement of the reasons therefor, and
during such period shall give the State an opportunity for a
hearing on such determination. Following such hearing the Secretary
shall issue a written order setting forth his final determination
and shall furnish a copy of such order to the State. Within forty-
five days of receipt of such order, the State may appeal such
order to any United States district court for such State, and upon
the filing of such appeal such order shall be stayed until final
judgment has been entered on such appeal. Summons may be served at
any place in the United States. The court shall have jurisdiction
to affirm the determination of the Secretary or to set it aside, in
whole or in part. The judgment of the court shall be subject to
review by the United States court of appeals for the circuit in
which the State is located and to the Supreme Court of the United
States upon certiorari or certification as provided in title 28,
United States Code, section 1254. If any part of an apportionment
to a State is withheld by the Secretary under subsection (b) of
this section or subsection (b) of section 136, the amount so
withheld shall not be reapportioned to the other States as long as
a suit brought by such State under this subsection is pending. Such
amount shall remain available for apportionment in accordance with
the final judgment and this subsection. Funds withheld from
apportionment and subsequently apportioned or reapportioned under
this section shall be available for expenditure for three full
fiscal years after the date of such apportionment or
reapportionment as the case may be.
(m) There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out the
provisions of this section, out of any money in the Treasury not
otherwise appropriated, not to exceed $20,000,000 for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1966, not to exceed $20,000,000 for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1967, not to exceed $2,000,000 for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1970, not to exceed $27,000,000 for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1971, not to exceed $20,500,000 for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1972, and not to exceed $50,000,000 for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1973. The provisions of this chapter
relating to the obligation, period of availability and expenditure
of Federal-aid primary highway funds shall apply to the funds
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section after June
30, 1967. Subject to approval by the Secretary in accordance with
the program of projects approval process of section 105,(!1) a
State may use any funds apportioned to it under section 104 of this
title for removal of any sign, display, or device lawfully erected
which does not conform to this section.
(n) No sign, display, or device shall be required to be removed
under this section if the Federal share of the just compensation to
be paid upon removal of such sign, display, or device is not
available to make such payment. Funds apportioned to a State under
section 104 of this title shall not be treated for purposes of the
preceding sentence as being available to the State for making such
a payment except to the extent that the State, in its discretion,
expends such funds for such a payment.
(o) The Secretary may approve the request of a State to permit
retention in specific areas defined by such State of directional
signs, displays, and devices lawfully erected under State law in
force at the time of their erection which do not conform to the
requirements of subsection (c), where such signs, displays, and
devices are in existence on the date of enactment of this
subsection and where the State demonstrates that such signs,
displays, and devices (1) provide directional information about
goods and services in the interest of the traveling public, and (2)
are such that removal would work a substantial economic hardship in
such defined area.
(p) In the case of any sign, display, or device required to be
removed under this section prior to the date of enactment of the
Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1974, which sign, display, or device was
after its removal lawfully relocated and which as a result of the
amendments made to this section by such Act is required to be
removed, the United States shall pay 100 per centum of the just
compensation for such removal (including all relocation costs).
(q)(1) During the implementation of State laws enacted to comply
with this section, the Secretary shall encourage and assist the
States to develop sign controls and programs which will assure that
necessary directional information about facilities providing goods
and services in the interest of the traveling public will continue
to be available to motorists. To this end the Secretary shall
restudy and revise as appropriate existing standards for
directional signs authorized under subsections 131(c)(1) and 131(f)
to develop signs which are functional and esthetically compatible
with their surroundings. He shall employ the resources of other
Federal departments and agencies, including the National Endowment
for the Arts, and employ maximum participation of private industry
in the development of standards and systems of signs developed for
those purposes.
(2) Among other things the Secretary shall encourage States to
adopt programs to assure that removal of signs providing necessary
directional information, which also were providing directional
information on June 1, 1972, about facilities in the interest of
the traveling public, be deferred until all other nonconforming
signs are removed.
(r) Removal of Illegal Signs. -
(1) By owners. - Any sign, display, or device along the
Interstate System or the Federal-aid primary system which was not
lawfully erected, shall be removed by the owner of such sign,
display, or device not later than the 90th day following the
effective date of this subsection.
(2) By states. - If any owner does not remove a sign, display,
or device in accordance with paragraph (1), the State within the
borders of which the sign, display, or device is located shall
remove the sign, display, or device. The owner of the removed
sign, display, or device shall be liable to the State for the
costs of such removal. Effective control under this section
includes compliance with the first sentence of this paragraph.
(s) Scenic Byway Prohibition. - If a State has a scenic byway
program, the State may not allow the erection along any highway on
the Interstate System or Federal-aid primary system which before,
on, or after the effective date of this subsection, is designated
as a scenic byway under such program of any sign, display, or
device which is not in conformance with subsection (c) of this
section. Control of any sign, display, or device on such a highway
shall be in accordance with this section. In designating a scenic
byway for purposes of this section and section 1047 of the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, a State
may exclude from such designation any segment of a highway that is
inconsistent with the State's criteria for designating State scenic
byways. Nothing in the preceding sentence shall preclude a State
from signing any such excluded segment, including such segment on a
map, or carrying out similar activities, solely for purposes of
system continuity.
(t) Primary System Defined. - For purposes of this section, the
terms "primary system" and "Federal-aid primary system" mean the
Federal-aid primary system in existence on June 1, 1991, and any
highway which is not on such system but which is on the National
Highway System.