Fowler Municipal Code Ch. 6 Signs Adjacent to Freeways

For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as follows:

(a) "Advertising display" shall mean an advertising structure or sign.

(b) "Advertising structure" shall mean a structure of any kind or character erected or maintained for outdoor advertising purposes on which any poster, bill, printing, painting, or other advertisement of any kind whatsoever may be placed, including statuary. "Advertising structure" shall not include the following:

(1) Official notices issued by a court, public body, or officer;

(2) Notices posted by any public officer in the performance of a public duty on by any person in giving legal notice; and

(3) Directional, warning, or information signs or structures required or authorized by law or by Federal, State, or municipal authority.

(c) "Freeway" shall mean a highway in respect to which the owners of abutting lands have no right or easement of access to or from their abutting lands or in respect to which such owners have only limited or restricted right or easement of access and which is declared to be such in compliance with the Streets and Highways Code of the State.

(d) "Landscaped freeway" shall mean a section or sections of a freeway which is now or hereafter may be, improved by the planting on at least one side of the freeway right-of-way of lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, or other ornamental vegetation which shall require reasonable maintenance. Planting for the purpose of soil erosion control, traffic safety requirements, reduction of fire hazards, or traffic noise abatement shall not change the character of a freeway to a landscaped freeway.

(e) "Sign" shall mean any card, cloth, metal, painted, or wooden sign of any character placed for outdoor advertising purposes on or to the ground or on any tree, wall, bush, rock, fence, building, structure, or thing, either publicly on privately owned, other than an advertising structure. "Sign" shall not include the following:

(1) Official notices issued by a court, public body, or officer;

(2) Notices posted by any public officer in the performance of a public duty or by any person in giving legal notice; and

(3) Directional, warning, or information signs or structures required or authorized by law or by Federal, State, or municipal authority.

(f) "To place", and any of its variants, as applied to advertising displays, shall mean maintaining and erecting, constructing, posting, painting, printing, tacking, nailing, gluing, stitching, carving, or otherwise fastening, affixing, or making visible any advertising display on or to the ground or on any tree, bush, rock, fence, post, wall, building, structure, or thing.

(§ 1, Ord. 11-1)

No advertising display shall be placed or maintained on property adjacent to a section of freeway which has been, or hereafter may be, landscaped as defined in Section 8-6.01 of this chapter if the advertising display is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on such landscaped section of a freeway.

(§ 2, Ord. 11-1)

The provisions of Section 8-6.02 of this chapter shall not apply to any of the following listed advertising structures or signs used exclusively:

(a) To advertise the sale or lease of the property on which such advertising display is placed;

(b) To designate the name of the owner or occupant of the premises upon which such advertising display is placed or to identify such premises; or

(c) To advertise the business conducted, goods manufactured or produced, or services rendered upon the property upon which such advertising display is placed.

(§ 3, Ord. 11-1)

Any advertising structure or sign which is now, or hereafter may be, in violation of the provisions of Section 8-6.02 of this chapter shall be removed within three (3) years after the date the project for the landscaping of a section or sections of a freeway shall have been completed or accepted and the character of such section or sections shall have been changed from a freeway to a landscaped freeway.

(§ 4, Ord. 11-1)