2014 Tennessee Code
Title 54 - Highways, Bridges And Ferries
Chapter 21 - Billboard Regulation and Control Act of 1972
§ 54-21-104 - Permits and tags -- Fees.

(a) Unless otherwise provided in this chapter, no person shall construct, erect, operate, use, maintain, or cause or permit to be constructed, erected, operated, used, or maintained, any outdoor advertising within six hundred sixty feet (660') of the nearest edge of the right-of-way and visible from the main traveled way of the interstate or primary highway systems without first obtaining from the commissioner a permit and tag.

(b) Permits and tags shall not be issued until applications are made in accordance with and on forms provided by the commissioner and accompanied by payment of a fee of two hundred dollars ($200) for each permit and tag requested. This fee shall represent payment for the required tag and for the first annual permit and shall not be subject to return upon rejection of any application. The commissioner shall use best efforts to process an application for a permit, in accordance with the rules of the department of transportation, within no greater than one hundred and eighty (180) days after a completed application is received. An application for an addendum to an existing permit requesting authorization to upgrade an existing outdoor advertising device to a changeable message sign with a digital display, as provided in § 54-21-122, shall also be accompanied by payment of a fee of two hundred dollars ($200), which shall not be subject to return upon rejection of the application. No outdoor advertising device with a digital display lawfully permitted, erected and in operation prior to June 1, 2008, shall be required to apply for such an addendum or to pay the fee.

(c) (1) All tags issued shall be permanent; however, permits shall be renewed annually between November 1 and December 31, and the commissioner shall charge the sum of forty dollars ($40.00) for the year 2008, fifty dollars ($50.00) for 2009, sixty dollars ($60.00) for 2010, and seventy dollars ($70.00) for 2011 and thereafter for annual renewal of each permit.

(2) In the event that a permit has not been renewed by December 31 for the following year as required by subdivision (c)(1), the permit shall not be considered void until the commissioner has given the permit holder notice of the failure to renew and the opportunity to correct the unlawfulness, as provided in § 54-21-105(b). The failure to renew may be remedied by submitting a late renewal form and paying the annual permit renewal fee together with a late fee, in the total amount of two hundred dollars ($200), within thirty (30) days of receipt of the notice. If a permit holder fails to renew the permit within this thirty-day notice period, then the permit shall be void and the outdoor advertising device shall be considered unlawful and subject to removal as further provided in § 54-21-105. The notice given by the commissioner shall include the requirements for renewal and consequences of failure to renew as provided by this subdivision (c)(2).

(d) For each permit issued, the commissioner shall deliver to the applicant a serially numbered permit tag, which shall be attached on the outdoor advertising in a manner as to be visible from the main traveled way of the interstate or primary highway. If more than one (1) side of any structure is used for outdoor advertising, a permit and tag shall be required for each side. Any outdoor advertising sculptured in the round shall be considered to have three (3) sides.

(e) For each replacement tag issued, the commissioner shall deliver to the applicant a serially numbered permit tag. The cost of this replacement tag shall be twenty-five dollars ($25.00), payable at the time of request.

(f) Whenever it becomes necessary to transfer a permit from one (1) permit holder to another, the department will charge a ten-dollar ($10.00) transfer fee to the permit holder of record.