045-16 Wyo. Code R. § 16-2

Current through April 27, 2019

Section 16-2 - Definitions

The following words or terms when used shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(a) "Abandoned sign" means a sign that is obliterated, displays an obsolete advertising message, or is in need of repair for 9 continuous months.

(b) "Back-to-back sign" means a sign with 2 display surfaces mounted on a single structure with the display surfaces visible to traffic from opposite directions of travel.

(c) "Blank sign" means a sign structure having no panel or face, or whose panel or face is not covered at least 50 percent in area by an advertising message for 9 continuous months. If the sign structure has multiple display surfaces, a blank sign means a sign with either surface having an advertising message covering less than 50 percent of its area.

(d) "Blinking" means a form of flashing in which the pattern of sudden illumination changes occurs with more than 2 on-off cycles per second.

(e) "Commercial or industrial activities" means those activities generally recognized as commercial or industrial by zoning authorities in this state, except that none of the following shall be considered commercial or industrial activities:

(i) Outdoor advertising structures;

(ii) Agricultural, forestry, grazing, farming, and related activities including wayside fresh produce stands;

(iii) Seasonal activities, or activities not conducted an average of at least 30 hours per week or at least 5 days a week;

(iv) Activities not visible from the main-traveled way;

(v) Activities conducted in a building principally used as a residence;

(vi) Railroad tracks and minor sidings unless abutting land on at least one side of the tracks is classified as a zoned or an unzoned commercial or industrial area;

(vii) Mineral extraction in the form of oil wells, pumping stations, transfer stations, storage tanks, and so forth;

(viii) Activities located more than 660 feet from the highway right-of-way;

(ix) Mobile home parks consisting primarily of blocked and skirted mobile homes;

(x) Activities that violate state or local law, ordinances, or covenants.

(f) "Commercial or industrial zone" means those areas reserved for business, commerce, or trade pursuant to comprehensive local zoning ordinances or regulations, or enabling state legislation, including highway service areas in which the primary use of the land is reserved for commercial and roadside services other than outdoor advertising. To be accepted, any commercial or industrial zone shall be adopted in accordance with the planning and zoning provisions of W. S. 18-5-201 through W.S. W.S. W.S. 18-5-208.

(g) "Conforming sign" means a sign that is lawfully in place and complies with size, lighting, or spacing requirements and all other pertinent lawful regulations.

(h) "Department" means the Wyoming Department of Transportation, specifically the Right-of-Way Program.

(i) "Digital billboard" means a billboard displaying static images controlled by electronic communications.

(j) "Directional sign" means a sign identifying and containing directional information to public places and

(i) owned or operated by federal, state, or local governments or one of their agencies;

(ii) a sign identifying and containing directional information to publicly or privately owned natural phenomena or historic, cultural, scientific, educational, and religious sites; or

(iii) a sign identifying and containing directional information to ranches, oil fields, missile sites, and so forth, located off highways where the side road is not signed by the Department.

(k) "Dissolve" means a transition between digital messages that is achieved with varying light intensity and in which the first message gradually appears to dissipate and loses legibility simultaneous to the gradual appearance legibility of the subsequent message.

(l) "Double-faced sign" means a sign with 2 display surfaces with multiple messages visible to traffic from one direction of travel.

(m) "Erect" means to construct, build, raise, assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other way bring into being or establish; but it shall not include any of the foregoing activities when performed as an incident to the change of advertising message or normal maintenance or repair of a sign structure.

(n) "Facing" means the total advertising surface of an outdoor advertising sign, display, or device visible from the main-traveled way of the highway.

(o) "Fade" means a transition between static message displays achieved with varying light intensity and in which the first message gradually loses light intensity to the point of not being legible and the subsequent message gradually increases intensity to the point of legibility.

(p) "Flashing" means a pattern of changing light illumination in which the sign illumination alternates suddenly between fully illuminated and fully non-illuminated in less than 4 seconds.

(q) "Foot candle" means a unit of illuminance equal to one lumen, uniformly incident upon an area of one square foot.

(r) "Unlawful sign" means a sign erected or maintained in violation of the state law, the outdoor advertising rules and regulations, or local law ordinance.

(s) "Immediate" means a transition between static message displays achieved in 2 seconds or less.

(t) "Intermittent" means a pattern of changing light intensity, other than that achieved with immediate, fade, or dissolve transitions, in which any message remains static for over 4 seconds.

(u) "Interstate system" means that portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways located within this state, as officially designated, or as may be so designed by the Department and approved by the secretary of transportation pursuant to the provisions of Title 23, United States Code, "Highways."

(v) "Maintain" means to allow to exist.

(w) "Main-traveled way" means the traveled way of a state highway on which through traffic is carried. In the case of a divided highway, the traveled way of each of the separated roadways for traffic in opposite directions is a main-traveled way. It does not include such facilities as frontage roads, turning roadways, or parking areas.

(x) "Moving light" means the physical change in position of any visible illumination source while lighted or the simulation of movement achieved with a pattern of sequentially illuminating visible illumination sources within close proximity to each other.

(y) "National highway system" means that portion of connected main highways, including interstate and defense highways, as officially designated by the Department and approved by the secretary of transportation pursuant to the provisions of Title 23, United States Code, "Highways."

(z) "Nonconforming sign" means a sign that was lawfully erected but does not comply with the provisions of the state law or regulations passed later or that later fails to comply with state law or regulations because of changed conditions.

(aa) "Official signs" means signs maintained by public agencies, public utilities, or nonprofit organizations.

(bb) "Off-premises sign" means an outdoor advertising sign that advertises an activity, service, or product and located in an area other than the premises at which such activity or service occurs or the product is sold or manufactured.

(cc) "On-premises sign" means a sign consisting solely of the name of the establishment or identifying the establishment's principal or accessory products or services offered on the property on which they are located.

(dd) "Outdoor advertising" means any permanent or portable outdoor sign, display, light, device, figure, painting, drawing, plaque, poster, billboard, or other object designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, and which is visible from any place on the main-traveled way of the interstate or national highway systems.

(ee) "Primary system" means the federal-aid primary system in existence June 1, 1991, and any highway not on this system but included on the National Highway System.

(ff) "Poor state of repair" means an outdoor advertising unit that has been damaged or allowed to deteriorate to the extent that the message or symbols or both are incomplete, the structure has been weakened, or parts of the face or structure have been detached and are free to be moved by the wind.

(gg) "Safety rest area" means an area or site established and maintained within or adjacent to the right-of-way by or under public supervision or control for the convenience of the traveling public.

(hh) "Static" means having no motion within a particular message or copy displayed on a digital billboard.

(ii) "Unzoned Commercial or Industrial Area" means those areas within 660 feet of the nearest edge of the highway right-of-way that are not zoned by state or local law, regulation, or ordinance and

(i) on which is located one or more permanent structures devoted to a business or industrial activity and not predominantly used for residential purposes, or

(ii) on which a commercial or industrial activity is conducted whether or not a permanent structure is located there.

(iii) These areas shall extend along the highway for 600 feet on either side of the activity and those lands on the direct opposite side of the highway to the extent of the same dimensions, as long as the Department has not deemed those lands on the opposite side as scenic or as having aesthetic value.

(iv) In determining such an area, measurements shall be made from the furthest or outermost edges of the regularly used area of the commercial or industrial activity, structures, normal points of ingress and egress, parking lots, storage, and processing area constituting an integral part of the commercial or industrial activity.

(v) All signs located within an unzoned area shall become nonconforming if the commercial or industrial activity used to define the area ceases for 6 months.

(vi) To be defined as an unzoned commercial or industrial area, the commercial or industrial activity shall be a business that is presently active and easily recognizable as a commercial or industrial activity. The business shall not qualify if:
- (A) The majority of the business activity is not actually conducted on the premises during normal business hours.
- (B) It is not connected to one or more utilities.
- (C) It is not reasonably accessible to the public.
- (D) It is located either partially or totally within an area zoned other than as commercial or industrial by local government zoning authority.
- (E) The business activity is conducted in a building principally used as a residence.
- (F) The commercial or industrial activity is established primarily to qualify an area for displaying outdoor advertising.
- (G) The business activity and land use is not characteristic of that generally permitted in areas actually zoned commercial or industrial under the authority of state or local law, regulations, or ordinances.

(vii) Following are typical non-qualifying business activities:
- (A) Local, county, state, or federal governmental offices or entities.
- (B) Enterprises such as nursing homes, child care centers, hospitals, retirement centers, airports, golf courses, rodeo grounds, and fairgrounds.
- (C) Non-profit organizations, service clubs, membership organizations, or any other private or semi-private organization, association, or entities not established for commercial profit, such as country clubs, trap clubs, and veterans clubs.

(jj) "V-type sign" means 2 signs erected independently of each other or attached to each other with multiple display surfaces having messages visible to traffic from opposite directions, with an interior angle between the 2 signs of not more than 120 degrees and with the signs separated by not more than 10 feet at the nearest point.

(kk) "Visible" means capable of being seen, whether or not legibly, without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity.

045-16 Wyo. Code R. § 16-2