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About the Highway Beautification Act

About the Highway Beautification Act

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Administration took action to enhance the beauty of America’s roadways through the Highway Beautification Act (HBA). The Act was signed into law on October 22, 1965 (Public Law 89-285) and sought to limit billboards, junkyards, and other forms of “visual clutter” that impacted the appearance of the Nation's growing Interstate Highway System and the existing Federal-aid primary system. It also required certain junkyards along Interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development. HBA has since become a comprehensive piece of national legislation ever passed regarding outdoor advertising control in America.

In announcing an America the Beautiful initiative in January 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) said:
“I want to make sure that the America we see from these major highways is a beautiful America.”

  • Control Outdoor Advertising: Regulate billboards along the Interstate and Federal-Aid Primary Systems, limiting their size, spacing, and lighting.
  • Manage Junkyards: Require the removal or screening of junkyards and scrap metal facilities visible from the highways.
  • Promote Scenic Beauty: Preserve natural beauty and enhance the visual appeal of public travel routes.
  • Protect Public Investment: Safeguard the significant federal investment in the highway system.
  • Enhance Travel Experience: Improve the safety, convenience, and recreational value of public travel.
  • Fund Landscaping: Use the Highway Trust Fund for landscaping, roadside development, and recreation areas.
  • Created an imaginary corridor around the Interstate System, extending 660 feet to each side, delineating the area in which states would control outdoor advertising.
  • Established a 1968 deadline for ‘effective control’ of outdoor advertising and outlined financial penalties for states that failed to do so.
  • Gave billboard operators a five-year grace period to continue operating non-conforming signs.
  • Provided for logo signs on the Interstate System and for information centers in safety rest areas.
  • Requires states to maintain “effective control” of outdoor advertising along federal highways or else be subject to a loss of 10 percent of their federal-aid highway fund.
  • Prohibits billboards in areas with non-commercial activity.
  • Prohibits new billboards that don’t conform to certain size, spacing, and lighting requirements.

Purpose of the Highway Beautification Act:

In the legislation, President Johnson called for “Congress to make our road highways to the enjoyment of nature and beauty so that we can greatly enrich the life of nearly all our people in the city and countryside alike.”

 

Additionally, in Title I of the Act, Congress explained:

“The Congress hereby finds and declares that the erection and maintenance of outdoor advertising signs, displays and devices in areas adjacent to the Interstate System and the primary system should be controlled in order to protect the public investment in such highways, to promote the safety and recreational value of public travel, and to preserve natural beauty.”

 

Per the 23 CFR § 750.701:

The purpose of these HBA policies and requirements is to assure that there is effective State control of outdoor advertising in areas adjacent to Interstate and Federal-aid primary highways:

§ 750.101 Purpose.

(a) In section 12 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1958, Pub. L. 85-381, 72 Stat. 95, hereinafter called the act, the Congress declared that:

(1) To promote the safety, convenience, and enjoyment of public travel and the free flow of interstate commerce and to protect the public investment in the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, hereinafter called the Interstate System, it is in the public interest to encourage and assist the States to control the use of and to improve areas adjacent to such system by controlling the erection and maintenance of outdoor advertising signs, displays, and devices adjacent to that system.

(2) It is a national policy that the erection and maintenance of outdoor advertising signs, displays, or devices within 660 feet of the edge of the right-of-way and visible from the main-traveled way of all portions of the Interstate System constructed upon any part of right-of-way, the entire width of which is acquired subsequent to July 1, 1956, should be regulated, consistent with national standards to be prepared and promulgated by the Secretary of Transportation.

 

§ 750.104 Signs that may not be permitted in protected areas.

Erection or maintenance of the following signs may not be permitted in protected areas:

(a) Signs advertising activities that are illegal under State or Federal laws or regulations in effect at the location of such signs or at the location of such activities.

(b) Obsolete signs.

(c) Signs that are not clean and in good repair.

(d) Signs that are not securely affixed to a substantial structure, and

(e) Signs that are not consistent with the standards in this part.

 

§ 750.105 Signs that may be permitted in protected areas.

(a) Erection or maintenance of the following signs may be permitted in protected areas:

Class 1—Official signs. Directional or other official signs or notices erected and maintained by public officers or agencies pursuant to and in accordance with direction or authorization contained in State of Federal law, for the purpose of carrying out an official duty or responsibility.

Class 2—On-premise signs. Signs not prohibited by State law which are consistent with the applicable provisions of this section and § 750.108 and which advertise the sale or lease of, or activities being conducted upon, the real property where the signs are located.

Not more than one such sign advertising the sale or lease of the same property may be permitted under this class in such manner as to be visible to traffic proceeding in any one direction on any one Interstate Highway.

Not more than one such sign, visible to traffic proceeding in any one direction on any one Interstate Highway and advertising activities being conducted upon the real property where the sign is located, may be permitted under this class more than 50 feet from the advertised activity.

Class 3—Signs within 12 miles of advertised activities. Signs not prohibited by State law which are consistent with the applicable provisions of this section and §§ 750.106, 750.107, and 750.108 and which advertise activities being conducted within 12 air miles of such signs.

Class 4—Signs in the specific interest of the traveling public. Signs authorized to be erected or maintained by State law which are consistent with the applicable provisions of this section and §§ 750.106, 750.107, and 750.108 and which are designed to give information in the specific interest of the traveling public.

Application and Requirements for Signage Permits:

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Read More about the Highway Beautification Act (1965) and Lady Bird’s Law (1965) here: