§ 306C.10 — Definitions

Iowa § 306C.10

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title VIII: TRANSPORTATION
• Ch. 306C: JUNKYARD BEAUTIFICATION AND BILLBOARD CONTROL

Text

For the purposes of this subchapter, 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 primary highway.
2. “Advertising device” means any outdoor sign, display, device, figure, painting, drawing,
message, placard, poster, billboard, or any other device designed, intended, or used to
advertise or inform, for which remuneration is paid or earned in exchange for its erection,
display, or existence by any person, and which is visible from the traveled portion of any
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.
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 subchapter and section 306B.5.
§306C.10, JUNKYARD BEAUTIFICATION AND BILLBOARD CONTROL 4
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 “specific information
of interest to the traveling public”, as defined in subsection 19.
10. “Interstate highway” includes “interstate road” and “interstate system” and means any
highway of the national highway 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. “National highway system” means the network designated by the federal highway
administration in consultation with the state department of transportation, which consists of
interconnected urban and rural principal arterials and highways that serve major population
centers, ports, airports, public transportation facilities, other intermodal transportation
facilities, and other major travel destinations; meet national defense requirements; and
serve interstate and interregional travel.
14. “Primary highways” means all highways on the national highway system and all
highways on the federal-aid primary system as it existed on June 1, 1991.
15. “Reconstruction” means any repair to the extent of sixty percent or more of the
replacement cost of the structure, excluding buildings.
16. “Remuneration” means the exchange of anything of value, including but not limited to
money, securities, real property interests, personal property interests, goods, services, future
consideration, exchange of favor, or forbearance of debt.
17. “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.
18. “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.
19. “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
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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.
20. “Structure” means any sign supporting device including but not limited to buildings.
21. “Unzonedcommercialorindustrialarea”meansthoseareasnotzonedbystateorlocal
law, regulation, or ordinance, which are occupied by one or more commercial or industrial
activities, and the land along the 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.
22. “Visible”meanscapableofbeingreadorcomprehendedwithoutvisualaidbyaperson
of normal visual acuity.

Legislative History

[C73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §306C.10]