Santa Maria Municipal Code Ch. 9-64 Freeway Advertising Displays

For the purpose of this Chapter the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this Section:

"Advertising display"

means advertising structures and signs.

"Advertising structure"

means 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.[1]

"Freeway"

means 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.

"Landscaped freeway"

means a Section or Sections of a freeway which is, as of the effective date of the ordinance from which this Chapter is derived or thereafter, improved by the planting, at least on one side of the freeway right-of-way, lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers or other ornamental vegetation which shall require reasonable maintenance.

"Sign"

means any card, cloth, metal, painted or wooden sign of any character, placed for outdoor advertising purposes, on or to the ground or any tree, wall, bush, rock, fence, building, structure or thing, either publicly or privately owned, other than an advertising structure.

Neither "advertising structure" nor "sign" includes:

(A)

Official notices issued by a court or public body or officer;

(B)

Notices posted by any public officer in performance of a public duty, or by any person in giving legal notice;

(C)

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

"To place"

and any of its variants, as applied to advertising displays, includes the maintaining and the 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 any tree, bush, rock, fence, post, wall, building, structure or thing.

(Ord. 2019-10, eff. 1/1/20)

[1]

Editor's Note: For exclusions from the definition of "advertising structure," see Subsection (5) of this Section.

No advertising displays shall be placed or maintained on property adjacent to a Section of freeway which has been or may be landscaped as defined in Section 9-64.010. If the advertising display is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on such landscaped Section of a freeway.

(Ord. 2019-10, eff. 1/1/20)

The provisions of Section 9-64.020 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;

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

(Ord. 2019-10, eff. 1/1/20)

Any advertising structure or sign which is in violation of the provisions of Section 9-64.020 shall be removed within three years from the effective date of the ordinance from which this Section derives or within three years from the date when the project for the landscaping of a Section or sections of a freeway has been completed or accepted and the character of such Section or sections has been changed from a freeway to a landscaped freeway, whichever is later.

(Ord. 2019-10, eff. 1/1/20)

Any person violating the provisions of this Chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(Ord. 2019-10, eff. 1/1/20)