Visitor centers: guide signs.

Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to adopt rules and regulations that allow the placement, near exits on freeways located in rural areas, of information signs identifying specific roadside businesses that offer fuel, food, lodging, camping services, approved 24-hour pharmacy services, or approved attractions, and that prescribe the standards for those signs. Existing law also authorizes the department, among other things, to place and maintain, or cause to be placed and maintained, signs on state highways directing motorists to communities within the geographical boundaries of a city, county, or city and county if specified conditions are satisfied. This bill would require the department to authorize guide signs for any visitor center seeking a sign if the visitor center is located within 2 miles from the highway intersection. The bill would require the department to establish and charge the visitor center a fee to fully offset the department's cost to place and maintain the sign.