33.1-348 - Junkyards.
§ 33.1-348. Junkyards.
(a) For the purpose of promoting the public safety, health, welfare,convenience and enjoyment of public travel, to protect the public investmentin public highways, and to preserve and enhance the scenic beauty of landsbordering public highways, it is hereby declared to be in the public interestto regulate and restrict the establishment, operation, and maintenance ofjunkyards in areas adjacent to the highways within this Commonwealth.
(b) For the purpose of this section the following definitions shall apply:
(1) "Junk" shall mean old or scrap copper, brass, rope, rags, batteries,paper, trash, rubber, debris, waste, or junked, dismantled, or wreckedautomobiles, or parts thereof, iron, steel, and other old or scrap ferrous ornonferrous material.
(2) "Automobile graveyard" shall mean any lot or place which is exposed tothe weather and upon which more than five motor vehicles of any kind that areincapable of being operated and which it would not be economically practicalto make operative, are placed, located or found. The movement orrearrangement of vehicles within an existing lot or facility does not renderthis definition inapplicable. The provisions established by this subdivisionshall begin with the first day that the vehicle is placed on the subjectproperty.
(3) "Junkyard" shall mean an establishment or place of business which ismaintained, operated, or used for storing, keeping, buying, or selling junk,or for the maintenance or operation of an automobile graveyard, and the termshall include garbage dumps and sanitary fills.
(4) "Interstate system" shall mean the system presently defined insubsection (c) of § 103 of Title 23, United States Code.
(5) "Primary highway" shall mean any highway within the State HighwaySystem as established and maintained under Article 2 (§ 33.1-25 et seq.),Chapter 1 of this title, including extensions of such System withinmunicipalities.
(6) "Federal-aid primary highway" shall mean any highway within thatportion of the State Highway System as established and maintained underArticle 2 (§ 33.1-25 et seq.), Chapter 1 of this title, including extensionsof such System within municipalities, which has been approved by theSecretary of Commerce pursuant to subsection (b) of § 103 of Title 23, UnitedStates Code.
(7) "Visible" shall mean capable of being seen without visual aid by aperson of normal visual acuity.
(c) No junkyard shall be hereafter established, any portion of which iswithin 1,000' of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of any interstate orprimary highway or within 500' of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of anyother highway or city street, except the following:
(1) Junkyards which are screened by natural objects, plantings, fences, orother appropriate means so as not to be visible from the main-traveled way ofthe highway or city street, or otherwise removed from sight.
(2) Junkyards which are located in areas which are zoned for industrial useunder authority of state law or in unzoned industrial areas as determined bythe Commonwealth Transportation Board.
(3) Junkyards which are not visible from the main-traveled way of the highwayor city street.
(d) Any junkyard lawfully in existence on April 4, 1968, which is within1,000' of the nearest edge of the right-of-way and visible from themain-traveled way of any interstate or federal-aid primary highway, and notlocated within an industrial area, shall be screened, if feasible, by theCommonwealth Transportation Commissioner at locations on the highwayright-of-way or in areas acquired for such purposes outside the right-of-way,so as not to be visible from the main-traveled way of such highways.
Any junkyard lawfully in existence on April 4, 1968, which is within 1,000'of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of any other primary highway orwithin 500' of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of any other highway andvisible from the main-traveled way of such highway, and not located within anindustrial area, may be screened by the Commonwealth TransportationCommissioner in the same manner as junkyards adjacent to interstate orfederal-aid primary highways.
The Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner is hereby authorized to acquireby purchase, gift or the power of eminent domain such lands or interests inlands as may be necessary to provide adequate screening of such junkyards.
(e) When the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner determines that thetopography of the land adjoining an interstate or federal-aid primary highwaywill not permit adequate screening of such junkyards or the screening of suchjunkyards would not be economically feasible, the Commonwealth TransportationCommissioner shall have the authority to acquire by gift, purchase or thepower of eminent domain, such interests in lands as may be necessary tosecure the relocation, removal, or disposal of the junkyards, and to pay forthe costs of relocation, removal, or disposal, thereof. When the CommonwealthTransportation Commissioner determines that the topography of the landadjoining any other highway will not permit adequate screening or such wouldnot be feasible, the Commissioner may exercise the same authority to relocatesuch junkyards as is vested in him in regard to interstate and federal-aidprimary highways.
(f) Any junkyard which comes into existence after April 4, 1968, and whichcannot be made to conform to this section, is declared to be a public andprivate nuisance and may be forthwith removed, obliterated or abated by theCommissioner or his representatives. The Commissioner may collect the cost ofsuch removal, obliteration or abatement from the person owning or operatingsuch junkyard.
(g) The Commonwealth Transportation Board is authorized to enter intoagreements with the United States as provided in 23 U.S.C. § 136 with respectto control of junkyards.
(h) The Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner shall not be required toexpend any funds for screening or relocation under this section unless anduntil federal-aid matching funds are made available for this purpose.
(i) Any person violating any provision of this section shall be guilty of amisdemeanor.
(Code 1950, § 33-279.3; 1958, c. 552; 1962, c. 8; 1966, c. 485; 1968, c. 240;1970, c. 322; 1973, c. 328; 2005, c. 291.)