Colorado § 43-1-403 - Definitions.

§ 43-1-403. Definitions.

As used in this part 4, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Advertising device" means any outdoor sign, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or any other contrivance designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform, for which compensation is directly or indirectly paid or earned in exchange for its erection or existence by any person or entity, and having the capacity of being visible from the travel way of any state highway, except any advertising device on a vehicle using the highway or any advertising device that is part of a comprehensive development. The term "vehicle using the highway" does not include any vehicle parked near said highway for advertising purposes.

(1.3) "Compensation" means the exchange of anything of value, including money, securities, real property interests, personal property interests, goods or services, promise of future development, exchange of favor, or forbearance of debt.

(1.5) (a) "Comprehensive development" means a group of two or more lots or parcels of land used primarily for multiple separate commercial or industrial activities that:

(I) Is located entirely on one side of a highway;

(II) Consists of lots or parcels that are contiguous except for public or private roadways or driveways that provide access to the development;

(III) Has been approved by the relevant local government as a development with a common identity and plan for public and private improvements;

(IV) Has common areas such as parking, amenities, and landscaping; and

(V) Has an approved plan of common ownership in which the owners have recorded irrevocable rights to use common areas and that provides for the management and maintenance of common areas.

(b) "Comprehensive development" includes all land used or to be used or occupied for the activities of the development, including buildings, parking, storage and service areas, streets, driveways, and reasonably necessary landscaped areas. A comprehensive development includes only land that is used for a purpose reasonably related to the activities of the development.

(2) "Defined area" means a geographically described economic area in which tourist-related businesses are located, which area would suffer substantial economic hardship by the removal of any tourist-related advertising device in that area providing directional information about goods and services in the interest of the traveling public.

(3) "Department" means the department of transportation.

(4) Repealed.

(5) "Erect" means to construct or allow to be constructed.

(6) "Highway" means any road on the state highway system, as defined in section 43-2-101 (1).

(7) "Informational site" means an area established and maintained within a highway rest area wherein panels for the display of advertising and informational plaques may be erected and maintained so as not to be visible from the travel way of any state highway.

(8) "Interstate system" means the system of highways as defined in section 43-2-101 (2).

(9) "Maintain" means to preserve, keep in repair, continue, or replace an advertising device.

(10) "Municipality" has the same meaning as defined in section 31-1-101 (6), C.R.S.

(11) "National policy" means the provisions relating to control of advertising, signs, displays, and devices adjacent to the interstate system contained in 23 U.S.C. sec. 131 and the national standards or regulations promulgated pursuant to such provisions.

(12) "Nonconforming advertising device" means any advertising device that was lawfully erected under state law and has been lawfully maintained in accordance with the provisions of this part 4 or prior state law, except those advertising devices allowed by section 43-1-404 (1).

(13) and (14) Repealed.

(15) "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, association, or organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not, and any government, governmental subdivision, or agency thereof.

(16) "Tourist-related advertising device" means any legally erected and maintained advertising device which was in existence on May 5, 1976, and which provides directional information about goods and services in the interest of the traveling public limited to the following: Lodging, campsite, food service, recreational facility, tourist attraction, educational or historical site or feature, scenic attraction, gasoline station, or garage.

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

(18) "Would work or suffer a substantial economic hardship" means tending to cause or causing a significant negative economic effect, such as a loss of business income, an increase in unemployment, a reduction in sales taxes or other revenue to the state or other governmental entity, a reduction in real estate taxes to the county, and other significant negative economic factors.

Source: L. 81: Entire part R&RE, p. 2007, § 1, effective July 1. L. 91: (3) amended, p. 1096, § 117, effective July 1. L. 96: (4) amended, p. 776, § 1, effective May 23. L. 2006: (1.5) added and (14) amended, p. 78, § 1, effective August 7. L. 2008: (12) amended, p. 256, § 1, effective August 5. L. 2021: (1) and (1.5)(b) amended, (1.3) added, and (4), (13), and (14) repealed, (SB 21-263), ch. 388, p. 2588, § 1, effective June 30.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 43-1-402 as it existed prior to 1981.

ANNOTATION

The Outdoor Advertising Act and its accompanying rules are content neutral under the first amendment. Rather than targeting the content of an advertisement, the regulatory scheme regulates the posting of billboards based on whether the speaker compensated the owner of the billboard to erect the device or display the message. Regardless of the message or content on the sign, only for-compensation signs visible from a state highway trigger the regulation. In short, the act and rules do not distinguish between content or messages. Streetmediagroup, LLC v. Stockinger, 79 F.4th 1243 (10th Cir. 2023).

The act and its accompanying rules are not unconstitutionally vague and do not operate as a prior restraint on speech. The act and its rules can be understood by a person of ordinary intelligence and contain adequate constraints against discriminatory or arbitrary application. Streetmediagroup, LLC v. Stockinger, 79 F.4th 1243 (10th Cir. 2023).

First, the act provides people of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct it prohibits. The conduct covered by the act is clear: An individual or entity erecting or maintaining for-compensation signs visible from a state highway must acquire a permit. Second, the act and its accompanying rules outline what must be included in a permit application; provide a deadline for decision-making; and create an administrative right of appeal. The rules supply nine reasons for which a permit must be denied and five reasons for which a permit may be denied. Streetmediagroup, LLC v. Stockinger, 79 F.4th 1243 (10th Cir. 2023).

The act and its accompanying rules are rationally related to a legitimate government purpose and do not violate the equal protection clause. The act distinguishes between "advertising devices" and other signs and billboards. The state has legitimate interests in highway safety and reducing visual clutter. Targeting paid billboard advertising, which includes permanent structures with changing content, from companies that have an economic incentive to construct as many billboards in as many visually prominent locations as possible is a legitimate government purpose. Streetmediagroup, LLC v. Stockinger, 79 F.4th 1243 (10th Cir. 2023).

Scope of act not limited to commercial advertising. Both legislative declaration and included definitions demonstrate that outdoor advertising act was intended to provide for the regulation of more than just commercial advertising. Pigg v. State Dept. of Hwys., 746 P.2d 961 (Colo. 1987).

Applied in State Dept. of Hwys. v. Pigg, 656 P.2d 46 (Colo. App. 1982).