Outdoor Advertising Act: local governmental entities: relocation.

The Outdoor Advertising Act regulates the placement of advertising displays adjacent to and within specified distances of highways that are part of the national system of interstate and defense highways and federal-aid highways. The act prohibits a governmental entity from compelling the removal of a lawfully erected advertising display within the state, or limiting its customary maintenance or use, without payment of compensation, as defined in the Eminent Domain Law, to the owner or owners of the display and the land upon which the display is located. This prohibition does not apply to an advertising display relocated by mutual agreement between the display owner and a local entity. The act generally prohibits placing or maintaining advertising displays on Department of Transportation-owned property adjacent to landscaped freeways if the advertising display is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on the landscaped freeway, but exempts (1) a county that designates where advertising displays may be placed or prohibited as part of a county land use or zoning ordinance and (2) the relocation or height increase for lawfully erected advertising displays pursuant to a relocation agreement, including the conversion of an advertising display to a message center as part of a relocation agreement. This bill would expand the exemption described in (1) above to also include a city or city and county that designates where advertising displays may be placed or prohibited as part of the city's or city and county's land use or zoning ordinance. The bill would expand the exemption described in (2) above to include agreements, entered into for any purpose, to relocate an advertising display or to convert or replace a relocated advertising display with a message center, as specified. The bill would authorize a relocated advertising display to be placed in the same or a different city, county, or city and county, as specified. This bill would require the department to allow any lawfully erected advertising display to be converted or replaced with a message center at its permitted location, as specified.