Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 290 - Department of Transportation › Chapter 30 - Business, Property Owners, and the Public › Subchapter 00 - N/A › Part 1 - Control and Restriction of Billboards, Signs and Other Advertising Devices › Section 290-RICR-30-00-1.4 - Definitions

Current through June 14, 2024
A. For the purposes of these Rules and
							Regulations, the following terms shall have the following meaning:
1. "Billboard" means a panel designed to
							carry outdoor advertising. Billboards are considered to be personal property by
							the Department and all municipal governments in the State of Rhode
							Island.
2. "Commercial" or
							"industrial activities" for the purposes of the unzoned area definition, mean
							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:
a.
							Agricultural, forestry, ranching, grazing, farming, and related activities,
							including, but not limited to wayside fresh produce stands.
b. Transient or temporary
							activities.
c. Activities not
							visible from the state-way.
d.
							Activities more than three hundred (300) feet from the nearest edge of the
							state-way.
e. Railroad tracks and
							minor sidings.
f. Activities
							normally and regularly in operation less than 5 months per year.
g. Activities conducted in a building
							principally used as a residence.
3. "Commercial or industrial zone" means
							those districts established by the zoning authorities as being most appropriate
							for commerce, industry, or trade, regardless of how labeled. They are commonly
							categorized as commercial, industrial, business, manufacturing, highway service
							or highway business (when these latter are intended for highway orientated
							business), retail, trade, warehouse, and similar classifications pursuant to
							the provisions of
							 23 C.F.R. §
												750.703(a).
4. "Controlled area" means:
a. In an urban area, those areas adjacent to,
							and within six hundred and sixty (660) feet of, the edge of the right-of-way of
							the state-way.
b. Outside an urban
							area, those areas adjacent to the edge of the right-of-way of the Interstate
							and Federal-Aid primary and secondary highway systems and visible from the
							state-way.
5. "Controlled
							routes" means: The Federal-aid primary system in existence on June 1, 1991, and
							any highway which is not on such a system, but which is on the National Highway
							System.
6. "Department" means the
							Department of Transportation of the State of Rhode Island.
7. "Designated scenic roadways" mean any
							State Roadways that have been designated a "Rhode Island Scenic Roadway" by the
							Rhode Island Scenic Roadway Board, under the current Rhode Island legislation
							for Scenic Roadways.
8.
							"Directional and official signs and notices" means official signs and notices,
							public utility signs, service clubs and religious notices, public service signs
							and directional signs.
9.
							"Directional signs" means signs containing directional information about public
							places owned or operated by Federal, State, or Local governments or their
							agencies; publicly or privately owned natural phenomena, historic,
							agricultural, cultural, scientific, educational, and religious sites: and areas
							of natural scenic beauty or naturally suited for outdoor recreation, including
							bicycle paths, and state-owned railroad corridors deemed to be in the interest
							of the public.
10. "Double panel"
							means two [2] signs side by side facing the same direction no more than five
							[5] feet apart.
11. "Erect" means
							to construct, build, raise, assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint,
							draw, or in any other way bring into being or establish pursuant to the
							provisions of
							 23 C.F.R. §
												750.153(e).
12. "Existing conforming sign" means signs
							that are lawfully erected and maintained and comply entirely with all
							provisions of the law. Conforming signs may remain or be erected adjacent to
							controlled highway systems after the effective date, May 6, 1966.
13. "Freeway" means a divided arterial
							highway for through traffic with full control of access, pursuant to the
							provisions of
							 23 C.F.R. §
												750.153(k).
14. "Illegal sign" means a sign erected or
							maintained in violation of State Law, pursuant to the provisions of  23 C.F.R. §
												750. 303(d).
15. "Immediate
							vicinity" means the area within fifty (50) feet of where the sign is located,
							including buildings, driveways and parking areas.
16. "Information center" means an area or
							site established and maintained as safety rest areas for the purpose of
							informing the public of places of interest within the state and providing such
							other information as the Director of Transportation may consider desirable,
							pursuant to the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws §
											24-10.1-2(1).
17. "Interchange" means a system of
							interconnecting roadways in conjunction with one or more grade separations that
							provides for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways
							on different levels. Interchanges may be of various types or a combination of
							types.
18. "Interstate system"
							means that a portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways
							located within this State, or highways built to interstate or defense highway
							standards as officially designated, or as may hereafter be so designated, by
							the Director of Transportation, and approved pursuant to the provisions of
							 23 U.S.C. §
												131.
19. "Landmark signs" means signs lawfully in
							existence on October 22, 1965, including signs on farm structures or natural
							surfaces, of historic or artistic significance, the preservation of which is
							consistent with the purpose of
							 23 U.S.C. §
												131. There exist no landmark signs outside
							urban areas in the State of Rhode Island.
20. "Maintain" means to allow to exist, or
							keep in repair.
21. "Major official
							guide sign" means a sign with a total area of at least twelve (12) square feet,
							erected and authorized by the State or Federal Government to designate route
							numbers or route names, distances and directions to certain localities or
							municipalities.
22. "Municipality"
							means a city or town in the State of Rhode Island.
23. "Non-conforming signs" means those signs
							which were lawfully erected, but which do not comply with the provisions of
							amended State regulations or which later fail to comply with State law or rules
							and regulations due to changed conditions. Illegally erected or maintained
							signs are not non-conforming signs pursuant to the provisions of
							 23 C.F.R. §
												750.303(e).
24. "Official signs" means signs and notices
							erected and maintained by public officers or public agencies within their
							territorial or zoning jurisdiction and pursuant to and in accordance with
							direction or authorizations contained in Federal, State, or local law for the
							purposes of carrying out an official duty or responsibility. Historical markers
							authorized by State law and erected by State or local government or nonprofit
							historical societies may be considered official signs pursuant to the
							provisions of
							 23 C.F.R. §
												750.154(n).
25. "On-premise advertising sign" means a
							sign at a business location advertising a business or businesses that are
							conducted on the property [the principal activity], or signs advertising the
							sale or lease of the real property upon which they are located, subject to the
							requirements of §
											1.11     of this Part.
26. "Outdoor advertising sign" means
							advertising signs, displays, and devises in adjacent areas consistent with the
							terms of these Rules and Regulations, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1958 [
							P.L. 85-381], and the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, as amended [ P.L.
							85-381], and any and all subsequent amendments and laws. Any outdoor sign,
							device, figure, painting, drawing, message, notices, placard, poster,
							billboard, billboard structure, monopole structure, letter board, or other
							thing which is designed, including lighting, intended or used to advertise or
							inform, any part of the advertising or informative contents of which is visible
							from any place on the state-way or the Interstate, Primary or Secondary
							Systems.
27. "Panel" means a flat
							piece of material, usually rectangular, made to form part of a sunken or raised
							surface set in a frame for the sole purpose of advertising, or any other shaped
							surface and/or structure including but not limited to; Digital Display,
							Trivision, other type of Commercial Electronic Changeable Message Sign (CEVMS),
							etc. approved by the Department.
28. "Permit" means a revocable certificate
							issuing permission by the Department authorizing the erection and maintenance
							of a sign at the location described thereon for a twelve [12] month period
							beginning from the date of issuance. The issuance of an outdoor advertising
							permit does not supersede municipal or other agency sign requirements or
							restrictions. Permits are not chattel.
29. "Permit holder" means any person holding
							a valid and unrevoked outdoor advertising permit. Permit Holders must
							demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Department that they have legal control
							of the real property [i.e., footprint] where the sign is located and legal
							control of the sign.
30. "Person"
							means any individual, group, corporation, limited liability company,
							partnership, association, any public entity, as the context may require, or
							combination thereof.
31. "Primary
							system" means that portion of connected main highways, as officially
							designated, or as may hereafter be so designated, by the Director of
							Transportation, and approved by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, pursuant
							to the provisions of
							 23 U.S.C. §
												103(b).
32. "Public service signs" means signs
							located on bus stop shelters, which sign:
a.
							Identify the donor, sponsor, or contributor of said shelters;
b. Contain safety slogans or messages, which
							shall occupy not less than fifty percent [50%] of the area of the
							sign;
c. Contain no other
							message;
d. Are located on bus
							shelters which are authorized or approved by city, county, or Statelaw,
							regulation, or ordinance, and at places approved by the city, county or State
							agency controlling the state-way involved; and must be located on a designated,
							active transit system.
e. May not
							exceed 32 square feet in area. Not more than one sign on each shelter shall
							face in any one direction.
33. "Public utility signs" means warning
							signs, informational signs, notices, or markers, which are customarily erected
							and maintained by publicly or privately owned public utilities, as essential to
							their operations.
34. "Replacement
							costs" are based on a mixture of signs in each category with different
							components such as backbracing, aprons, scaffolds, and differing heights above
							ground level. The basic structure cost figure will thus apply whether or not
							the sign being valued has any (or all) of the above-mentioned features.
							Additives for such items as incandescent lighting, mercury vapor lights, quartz
							floodlights, unusual features, or differing heights above ground level over
							eleven (11) feet, should be made when appropriate and the costs are verified by
							the Department's Appraisal Unit.
35. "Right-of-way" means the easement in or
							property acquired by the public through the Department of Transportation, for
							the purposes of highway construction, safety rest areas, landscaping or any
							other purpose incidental to highway travel or highway use.
36. "Rules and regulations" means the State
							of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Department of
							Transportation, Control and Restriction of Billboards, Signs and Other
							Advertising Devices.
37. "Safety
							rest areas" 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. No advertising of any form will be allowed
							and is strictly prohibited within Safety Rest Areas unless previously reviewed
							and approved by the Director of the Department of Transportation, pursuant to
							the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws §
											24-10.1-2(6).
38. "Secondary systems" means that portion of
							state maintained roads that are neither interstate nor primary roads, pursuant
							to the provisions of R.I. Gen. Laws §
											24-10.1-2(7).
39. "Service club and religious notices"
							means signs and notices, whose erection is authorized by law, relating to
							meetings of nonprofit service clubs or charitable associations, or religious
							services, which signs do not exceed 8 square feet in area, pursuant to the
							provisions of
							 23 C.F.R. §
												750.153(p).
40. "Sign" means the following: a display as
							a lettered board, a posted command, warning, or direction, including messages
							utilizing new technologies such as Trivision or equivalent technologies such as
							CMS, Digital LED, Video LED, Price Pack [changed by satellite or other],
							Lottery [changed by satellite or other], Electronic Water Art, Holographic,
							Projectorized, Gas Plasma, or other changeable messages as approved by the
							Department of Transportation, and if and when necessary the Federal Highway
							Administration, any outdoor advertising sign, device, figure, painting,
							drawing, message, notices, placard, poster, billboard, billboard structure,
							monopole structure, letter board, or other thing which is designed, including
							lighting, intended or used to advertise or inform, any part of the advertising
							or informative contents of which is visible from any place on the state-way of
							the Interstate or primary system, or secondary system.
41. "State-way" means the following: an
							interstate, a road, highway, route, traveled way, interway, primary,
							Federal-aid primary or secondary system, designated scenic roadway and
							arterials pursuant to the Rhode Island Division of Planning, Statewide Highway
							Functional Classification Map (2003).
42. "Structure" means any device, engineered
							or not which provides support for panels that provide an advertising message,
							including but not limited to monopoles, multipoles, or any other thing used to
							provide support.
43. "Unzoned
							commercial or industrial area" means those areas not zoned by State or local
							law, regulation or ordinance, which are occupied by one or more industrial or
							commercial activities, other than outdoor advertising signs, and the lands
							along the state-way for a distance of five hundred (500) consecutive feet
							immediately adjacent to the activities. All measurements shall be from the
							outer edges of the regularly used buildings, parking lots, storage or
							processing areas of the activities, not from the property lines of the
							activities, and shall be along or parallel to the edge of pavement of the
							state-way. Measurements shall not be from the property lines of the activities
							unless said property lines coincide with the limits of the activities. Unzoned
							industrial or commercial areas shall not include land predominately used for
							residential purposes, or land adjacent to Interstate or primary highway
							constructed on right-of-way, the entire width of which was acquired subsequent
							to July 1, 1956. In addition, "spot or strip zoning," will not be considered as
							a commercial or an industrial area.
44. "Urban area" means an urbanized area or
							an urban place as designated by the Bureau of the Census having a population of
							five thousand or more and not within any urbanized area, which boundaries to be
							fixed by the Office of Statewide Planning, subject to approval by the Secretary
							of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Such boundaries shall be as a
							minimum, encompass the entire urban place designated by the Bureau of the
							Census.
45. "Urbanized area" means
							an area so designated by the Bureau of the Census, within boundaries to be
							fixed by the Office of Statewide Planning, subject to approval by the Secretary
							of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Such boundaries shall, as a minimum,
							encompass the entire urbanized area within the State as designated by the
							Bureau of the Census, pursuant to the provisions of
							 23 U.S.C. §
												101(a).
46. "Visible" means capable of being seen,
							[whether or not legible] without visual aid by a person of normal visual
							acuity, pursuant to the provisions of
							 23 C.F.R §
												750.153(j).