2009 Iowa Code
Title 8 - Transportation
Subtitle 1 - Highways and Waterways
CHAPTER 306C - JUNKYARD BEAUTIFICATION AND BILLBOARD CONTROL
306C.10 - DEFINITIONS.

        306C.10  DEFINITIONS.
         For the purposes of this division, unless the context otherwise
      requires:
         1.  "Adjacent area" means an area which is contiguous to and
      within six hundred sixty feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way
      of any interstate, freeway primary, or primary highway.
         2.  "Advertising device" includes any outdoor sign, display,
      device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster,
      billboard, or any other device designed, intended, or used to
      advertise or give information in the nature of advertising, and
      having the capacity of being visible from the traveled portion of any
      interstate or primary highway.
         3.  "Bonus interstate highways" includes all interstate
      highways except those interstate highways adjacent to areas excepted
      from control under chapter 306B by authority of section 306B.2,
      subsection 4.
         4.  "Commercial or industrial activities" means those
      activities generally recognized as commercial or industrial by zoning
      authorities in this state, except that none of the following
      activities shall be considered commercial or industrial:
         a.  Outdoor advertising structures.
         b.  Agricultural, forestry, grazing, farming, and related
      activities, including but not limited to wayside fresh produce.
         c.  Activities in operation less than three months per year.
         d.  Activities conducted in a building principally used as a
      residence.
         e.  Railroad tracks and minor spurs.
         f.  Activities outside of adjacent areas, as defined by this
      division and section 306B.5.
         g.  Activities which have been used in defining and
      delineating an unzoned area but which have since been discontinued or
      abandoned.
         h.  Residential housing developments.
         i.  Manufactured home communities or mobile home parks.
         j.  Institutions of learning.
         k.  State, county, and charitable institutions.
         l.  State and county conservation and recreation areas, public
      parks, forests, playgrounds, or other areas of historic interest or
      areas designated as scenic beautification areas under section 313.67.

         5.  "Commercial or industrial zone" means those areas zoned
      commercial or industrial under authority of a law, regulation, or
      ordinance of this state, its subdivisions, or a municipality.
         6.  "Department" means the state department of transportation.

         7.  "Erect" means to construct, reconstruct, build, raise,
      assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other
      way bring into being or establish; however, it shall not include any
      of the foregoing activities when performed incidental to the
      customary maintenance of an advertising device.
         8.  "Freeway primary highway" means those primary highways
      which have been constructed as a fully controlled access facility
      with no access to the facility except at established interchanges.
         9.  "Information center" means a site, either with or without
      structures or buildings, established and maintained at a rest area
      for the purpose of providing "information of specific interest to the
      traveling public", as defined in subsection 18.
         10.  "Interstate highway" includes "interstate road" and
      "interstate system" and means any highway of the primary system
      at any time officially designated as a part of the national system of
      interstate and defense highways by the department and approved by the
      appropriate authority of the federal government.
         11.  "Maintain" means to cause to remain in a state of good
      repair but does not include reconstruction.
         12.  "Main-traveled way" means the portion of the roadway for
      movement of vehicles on which through traffic is carried exclusive of
      shoulders and auxiliary lanes.  In the case of a divided highway, the
      main-traveled way includes each of the separated roadways for traffic
      in opposite directions, exclusive of frontage roads, turning
      roadways, or parking areas.
         13.  "Primary highways" includes the entire primary system as
      officially designated, or as may hereafter be so designated, by the
      department.
         14.  "Reconstruction" means any repair to the extent of sixty
      percent or more of the replacement cost of the structure, excluding
      buildings.
         15.  "Rest area" means an area or site established and
      maintained under authority of section 313.67 within the right-of-way
      of an interstate, freeway primary, or primary highway under
      supervision and control of the department for the safety, recreation,
      and convenience of the traveling public.
         16.  "Right-of-way" means land area dedicated to public use
      for the highway and its maintenance, and includes land acquired in
      fee simple or by permanent easement for highway purposes, but does
      not include temporary easements or rights for supplementary highway
      appurtenances.
         17.  "Special event sign" means a temporary advertising
      device, not larger than thirty-two square feet in area, erected for
      the purpose of notifying the public of noncommercial community events
      including but not limited to fairs, centennials, festivals, and
      celebrations open to the general public and sponsored or approved by
      a city, county, or school district.
         18.  "Specific information of interest to the traveling
      public" means only information about public places for camping,
      lodging, eating, and motor fuel and associated services, including
      trade names, which have telephone facilities available when the
      public place is open for business and businesses engaged in selling
      motor fuel which have free air for tire inflation and restroom
      facilities available when the public place is open for business.
         19.  "Structure" means any sign supporting device including
      but not limited to buildings.
         20.  "Unzoned commercial or industrial area" means those areas
      not zoned by state or local law, regulation, or ordinance, which are
      occupied by one or more commercial or industrial activities, and the
      land along the interstate highways and primary highways for a
      distance of seven hundred fifty feet immediately adjacent to the
      activities.  All measurements shall be from the outer edge of the
      regularly used buildings, parking lots, storage, or processing areas
      of the activities and shall be parallel to the edge of pavement of
      the highway.  Measurements shall not be from the property line of the
      activities unless that property line coincides with the limits of the
      activities.  Unzoned commercial or industrial areas shall not include
      land on the opposite side of the highway from the commercial or
      industrial activities.
         21.  "Visible" means capable of being read or comprehended
      without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity.  

         Section History: Early Form

         [C73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 306C.10] 

         Section History: Recent Form

         2001 Acts, ch 153, §16; 2003 Acts, ch 8, §5; 2009 Acts, ch 133,
      §111, 235
         Referred to in § 314.27