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78R4459 JTS-D
By: Nelson S.B. No. 512
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to billboards along highways; imposing a civil penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 216.001, Local Government Code, is
amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(d) This subchapter does not allow the relocation or
reconstruction of a billboard in violation of Section 398.002,
Transportation Code.
SECTION 2. Section 216.901(a), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) Subject to Chapter 398, Transportation Code, a [A]
home-rule municipality may license, regulate, control, or prohibit
the erection of signs or billboards by charter or ordinance.
SECTION 3. Section 391.001(10), Transportation Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(10) "Outdoor advertising" means an outdoor sign,
display, light, device, figure, painting, drawing, message,
plaque, poster, [billboard,] or other thing designed, intended, or
used to advertise or inform if any part of the advertising or
information content is visible from the main-traveled way of the
interstate or primary system. The term includes a sign, display,
light, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, plaque, or
poster displayed on a billboard, as defined by Section 398.001. The
term does not include a sign or marker giving information about the
location of an underground electric transmission line, telegraph or
telephone property or facility, pipeline, public sewer, or
waterline.
SECTION 4. Section 394.001(5), Transportation Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(5) "Sign" means a structure, display, light, device,
figure, painting, drawing, message, plaque, poster, [billboard,]
or other thing that is designed, intended, or used to advertise or
inform. The term includes a structure, display, light, device,
figure, painting, drawing, message, plaque, or poster displayed on
a billboard, as defined by Section 398.001.
SECTION 5. Subchapter A, Chapter 394, Transportation Code,
is amended by adding Section 394.006 to read as follows:
Sec. 394.006. RELATIONSHIP TO GENERAL PROHIBITION OF
BILLBOARD. This chapter does not allow the erection or relocation
of a billboard in violation of Section 398.002.
SECTION 6. Section 394.043(a), Transportation Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) An on-premise or off-premise sign, when installed, must
be designed to resist wind loads as follows:
Height in feet Wind load pressure
above ground in pounds for each square foot
0-5 0
6-30 20
31-50 25
51-99 35
100-199 45
200-299 50
300-399 55
400-500 60
501-800 70
Over 800 77
SECTION 7. Subtitle H, Title 6, Transportation Code, is
amended by adding Chapter 398 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 398. BILLBOARD CONSTRUCTION, REPAIR, AND RELOCATION
Sec. 398.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Billboard" means a structure directly attached to
land or a building that has a panel or other space that is intended
to be rented or is rented by a person other than the owner of the
structure for the display of advertising or other information. The
term does not include:
(A) a sign designed or intended to protect life
or property; or
(B) a structure erected by an agency or political
subdivision of this state.
(2) "Highway or street" has the meaning assigned by
Section 541.302.
Sec. 398.002. PROHIBITION OF BILLBOARDS VISIBLE FROM
HIGHWAY OR STREET. (a) A person may not:
(1) erect a billboard that is visible from a highway or
street; or
(2) repair or rebuild a billboard that is visible from
a highway or street and is substantially destroyed.
(b) For the purposes of this section, a billboard is
substantially destroyed if the cost of repairing or rebuilding the
billboard is more than 60 percent of the cost of erecting a new
billboard of the same size, type, and construction at the same
location.
(c) This section does not apply to a billboard that displays
a sign designed or intended to protect life or property.
Sec. 398.003. RELOCATION OF BILLBOARD. (a) A person does
not violate Section 398.002 if the person relocates a billboard
and:
(1) the construction, reconstruction, or expansion of
a highway or street requires the removal of the billboard;
(2) the same type of billboard supports are used at the
new location;
(3) the height above the grade level of the highway or
street from which the sign on the billboard is viewed, the lighting,
the dimensions and area of the sign face on the billboard, or the
number of sign faces on the billboard are not increased; and
(4) if the billboard is to be relocated to a location
in the corporate limits or the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a
municipality, the governing body of the municipality allows the
relocation of the billboard and approves the new site.
(b) The commission may designate a highway of the state
highway system as or a segment of a highway as a protected highway
along which a billboard may not be relocated.
Sec. 398.004. RULES. The department shall adopt rules for
the administration and enforcement of this chapter.
Sec. 398.005. CIVIL PENALTY. (a) A person who violates
Section 398.002 is liable to the state for a civil penalty of not
less than $500 or more than $1,000 for each violation, depending on
the seriousness of the violation. A separate penalty may be
collected for each day a continuing violation occurs.
(b) The attorney general, the district or county attorney
for the county, or the municipal attorney of the municipality in
which the violation is alleged to have occurred may bring a suit for
injunctive relief, to collect the civil penalty, or for both the
injunctive relief and the civil penalty.
(c) A civil penalty collected by the attorney general under
this section shall be deposited to the credit of the state highway
fund to be used only for landscaping along highways. A civil
penalty collected in a suit brought by a county or district attorney
or by a municipal attorney under this section shall be equally
divided between this state and the applicable county or
municipality, with this state's portion of the penalty collected to
be deposited to the credit of the state highway fund to be used only
for landscaping highways.
SECTION 8. Subchapter I, Chapter 391, Transportation Code,
is repealed.
SECTION 9. (a) This Act takes effect immediately if it
receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each
house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.
If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate
effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2003.
(b) This Act applies only to a billboard for which an
application for a permit or license has not been submitted to the
Texas Transportation Commission or a municipality before the
effective date of this Act.