54-21-109 - Restrictions on advertising adjacent to state highways.
54-21-109. Restrictions on advertising adjacent to state highways.
(a) Control of outdoor advertising signs, displays and devices is extended to signs, displays and devices located beyond six hundred sixty feet (660¢) of the edge of the right-of-way of the federal-aid interstate or primary systems outside of urban areas erected with the purpose of their message being read from the main traveled ways of the systems. The signs, displays or devices are prohibited, whether or not in commercial or industrial areas, unless they are of a class or type allowed under existing law within six hundred sixty feet (660¢) of the edge of the right-of-way of the systems outside of commercial or industrial areas.
(b) Those outdoor advertising signs, displays or devices lawfully erected prior to July 1, 1976, but prohibited as of July 1, 1976, by subsection (a) shall be removed upon the payment of just compensation in the same manner and subject to the same limitations as signs lawfully erected within six hundred sixty feet (660¢) of the edge of the right-of-way of the federal-aid interstate and primary systems outside of commercial and industrial areas.
(c) Signs lawfully in existence on October 22, 1965, determined by the commissioner, subject to the concurrence of the secretary of transportation of the United States, 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 section, are not required to be removed.
[Acts 1976, ch. 740, § 1; T.C.A., § 54-2609; Acts 1980, ch. 470, § 2.]