General Prohibitions

TITLE 40 HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES CHAPTER 19 BEAUTIFICATION OF HIGHWAYS 40-1911. General prohibitions. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, no advertising display shall be erected or maintained within six hundred sixty (660) feet from the edge of the right-of-way of the interstate and primary system of highways within this state except the following: (1)  Directional or other official signs or notices that are required or authorized by law, informational or directional signs regarding telephone service, emergency telephone signs, buried or underground cable markers and above cable closures; (2)  Signs advertising the sale or lease of property upon which they are located; (3)  Displays advertising activities conducted on the property upon which they are located, provided that not more than one (1) such sign, visible to traffic proceeding in any one direction, and advertising activities being conducted upon the real property where the sign is located may be permitted more than fifty (50) feet from the advertising activity; (4)  Displays located within areas zoned industrial, business or commercial under authority of state law, or in unzoned industrial or commercial areas as determined by the department; (5)  Displays erected or maintained by the department on the right-of-way pursuant to regulation of the department designed to give information in the specific interest of the traveling public. The department, by and through its director, may, upon receipt of a certified copy of an ordinance from a board of county commissioners, or a city council, accompanied by all economic studies required by federal rules and regulations showing that the removal of tourist-related advertising activities would cause an economic hardship on a defined area, forward the ordinance to the secretary of the United States department of transportation for inclusion as a defined hardship area, qualifying for exemption pursuant to section 131(o), title 23, United States Code. The ordinance and economic studies shall show that (1) the tourist-related advertising devices provide directional information about goods and services in the interest of the traveling public, and (2) that the removal of the specific directional advertising displays will work a substantial economic hardship in the defined area; (6)  Signs lawfully in existence on October 22, 1965, determined to be landmark signs, including signs on farm structures or natural surfaces, of historic or artistic significance, the preservation of which would be consistent with the purposes of this chapter; and (7)  On or after July 1, 1985, no advertising structure or display shall be erected or maintained in this state, other than those allowed pursuant to subparagraphs (2), (3) and (4) of this section, which are located beyond six hundred sixty (660) feet of the right-of-way, located outside of urban areas, visible from the main traveled way of the system, and erected for the purpose of the message being read from that main traveled way of the system.