Opinion ID: 1822350
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Minnesota Outdoor Advertising Control Act

Text: Minnesota's Act was enacted to comply with the terms of the FHBA, presumably to prevent any forfeiture of ten percent of federal-aid highway funding. Minn.Stat. ch. 173 (2002). Although Minnesota's declaration of policy essentially adopts the federal goals (to promote the general welfare of the people and to conserve the natural beauty of areas adjacent to certain highways), it also recognizes the positive contribution of billboards (inasmuch as outdoor advertising is an integral part of the business and marketing function, an established segment of the national economy, and a legitimate commercial use of property adjacent to roads and highways, it should be allowed to operate where other business and commercial activities are conducted   ). Minn.Stat. § 173.01 (2002). To that end, Minnesota's regulation allows billboards to be located in business areas. Minn.Stat. § 173.08, subd. 1(8) (2002). Business areas are defined to mean any part of an adjacent area which is (a) zoned for business, industrial or commercial activities under the authority of any law of this state or any political subdivision thereof;   . Minn.Stat. § 173.02, subd. 17 (2002). I conclude from this that Minnesota has recognized that the federal criteria for permitting billboards does not require that the zoning label be either commercial or industrial. In fact, from Minnesota's broader statement of purpose, and its choice of the broad term business areas, I infer the intent to (1) be as permissive as the federal criteria allows and (2) focus on the use of the property, not on its ownership. There is no suggestion in this record that Minnesota's regulatory system, including its focus on business areas, fails to provide effective control of the erection and maintenance    of outdoor advertising signs, within the meaning of the FHBA. Accordingly, the precise question presented is whether the language by which the Minnesota legislature has exercised control of billboards permits the erection of billboards on a municipally owned golf course that has been zoned as a PF.