Ohio Administrative Code
Title 5501:2 - Division of Highways
Chapter 5501:2-2 - Erection and Control of Outdoor Advertising
Section 5501:2-2-02 - General provisions for the erection and control of advertising devices
Universal Citation: OH Admin Code 5501:2-2-02
Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) Restrictions on outdoor advertising adjacent to the interstate, federal aid primary, and national highway systems: all advertising devices erected or maintained within six hundred sixty feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way and visible from the main traveled way shall conform to the following requirements:
(1) Zoning criteria: outdoor advertising must
be located in areas zoned for commercial or industrial use or in areas which
qualify for unzoned commercial or industrial use. Zoning action taken which is
not part of a bona fide comprehensive zoning plan and is created primarily to
permit outdoor advertising device structures shall not be recognized as zoning
for the purpose of Chapter 5516. of the Revised Code or division 5501:2 of the
Administrative Code. A zone in which limited commercial or industrial
activities are permitted as an incident to other primary land uses is not
considered to be a commercial or industrial zone for outdoor advertising
control purposes. Strip and spot zoning are not permitted for advertising
device control purposes. The definition of an unzoned commercial or industrial
area as used in division (I) of section
5516.01 of the Revised Code
shall apply within a political subdivision or area if:
(a) A unit of government is not authorized to
zone; or
(b) A unit of government
has not zoned in accordance with statutory authority.
(2) Sizing criteria:
(a) Area:
(i) The maximum area of a sign face shall be
twelve hundred square feet, excluding decorative bases and supports. The
minimum area for any such sign face for which a permit is required shall be
eight square feet. Two sign faces may be permitted at a single location facing
the same direction provided that they are immediately adjacent to each other.
If there is a border or trim around a sign face, it shall be deemed to be a
separate sign face and the total combined area of both sign faces at a single
location may not exceed twelve hundred square feet.
(ii) The area of a sign face shall be
measured by the smallest square, rectangle, triangle, circle or combination
thereof which will encompass the entire sign face, including border, trim,
cutout and extension.
(b) Height:
Any advertising device structure exceeding one hundred fifty feet in height shall comply with the American association of state highway and transportation officials standards. The applicant shall submit all necessary plans and documentation to assist the department in the review and approval of the advertising device.
(3) Spacing criteria:
(a) Interstate highway systems: for any
advertising device adjacent to an interstate highway system, the following
spacing requirements shall apply:
(i)
Advertising devices, whose sign faces are visible to approaching traffic, on
either or same side of the main traveled way shall have a minimum spacing of
five hundred feet between each advertising device.
(ii) Advertising devices, whether or not
visible to the main-traveled way of the interstate system, shall not be located
at or within five hundred feet of an interchange or proposed
interchange.
(iii) No advertising
device, outside a municipal corporation, shall be located within five hundred
feet of any visible and publicly owned, controlled or maintained safety rest
area, parkland, garden, forest preserve, picnic ground, playground, swimming
beach, elementary or secondary school, cemetery, or scenic area, that is
visible from or whose property boundaries front the main traveled
way.
(b) Federal aid
primary and national highway systems: for any advertising device adjacent to a
route on the federal aid primary or national highway systems, the following
spacing requirements shall apply:
(i)
Advertising devices whose sign faces are visible to approaching traffic on
either or same sides of the main-traveled way shall have a minimum spacing of:
(a) Five hundred feet outside of a municipal
corporation and on freeways within a municipal corporation.
(b) Two hundred fifty feet on other highways
inside a municipal corporation.
(ii) Advertising devices, whether or not
visible to the main-traveled way of the federal aid primary or national highway
systems, shall not be located within five hundred feet of an interchange or
proposed interchange.
(iii) No
advertising device, outside a municipal corporation, shall be located within
five hundred feet of any visible and publicly owned, controlled or maintained
safety rest area, parkland, garden, forest preserve, picnic ground, playground,
swimming beach, elementary or secondary school, cemetery, or scenic area, that
is visible from or whose property boundaries front the main traveled
way.
(iv) There is no spacing
requirement between advertising devices, including multiple message and
variable message, located within a business district provided the sign face of
the advertising device is not visible to the main traveled way of a highway on
the interstate system or a freeway portion of the federal aid primary or
national highway systems.
(c) Measurements
(i) The distance from the edge of the right
of way shall be measured horizontally along a line perpendicular to the
centerline of the highway.
(ii) The
distance between
advertising devices visible to approaching
traffic shall be measured along the right edge of the main-traveled way of the
highway in the direction of travel. Only advertising devices included in
division
(A) of section
5516.02 and divisions
(A) and
(B) of
section 5516.06 and division
(A) of
section 5516.061 of the Revised Code
shall be considered in determining spacing requirements.
(iii) The distance from an interchange shall
be measured at the nearest point of the beginning or ending of pavement
widening of the exit or entrance roadway to the main-traveled way along the
right edge of the main-traveled way.
(iv) The distance from safety rest areas on
freeways shall be measured at the nearest point of the beginning or ending of
pavement widening from the exit or entrance roadway to the main-traveled way
along the right edge of the main-traveled way of the interstate system, federal
aid primary system, or national highway system.
(v) The distance from any parkland, safety
rest area, park, garden, forest preserve, playground, picnic ground, swimming
beach, any elementary or secondary school, cemetery, or scenic area shall be
measured from the nearest property boundary, and shall apply to both sides of
the highway along which the area is located.
(4) Lighting criteria: lighting shall not be
used in any way in connection with any advertising device or sign face unless
it is so effectively shielded as to prevent beams or rays of light from being
directed at any portion of the main-traveled way of any highway, or is of such
low intensity or brilliance as not to cause glare or impair the vision of the
driver of any motor vehicle, or to otherwise interfere with any driver's
operation of a motor vehicle.
(a)
Advertising devices shall not contain or be
illuminated by any animation or video, nor illuminated with any flashing,
fading, intermittent, or moving light or lights.
(b) A multiple message or variable message
sign face shall not include animations, video, or be illuminated with flashing,
intermittent, or moving lights. No multiple message or variable message sign
face may include any illumination which is flashing, intermittent, or moving
when in a fixed position.
(5) When an advertising device is erected so
that a sign face is visible from two or more highways, the more stringent of
applicable outdoor advertising control requirements for those routes shall
apply.
(6) All advertising devices
and sign faces must be clean and in good repair.
(7) Abandoned,
discontinued and damaged advertising devices.
(a) When an advertising device is damaged by
more than seventy per cent of its replacement value immediately prior to the
damaging incident, the device will be considered destroyed. This does not apply
to advertising devices damaged by vandalism, other criminal or torturous acts
or weather-related causes, upon satisfactory evidence submitted to the Ohio
department of transportation.
(b)
An advertising device and structure which has depreciation of more than seventy
per cent of its replacement value due to lack of maintenance is considered to
be abandoned or discontinued.
(c)
An advertising device which ceases to display advertising
copy
longer than one year
is considered to be abandoned or discontinued.
(d) Advertising
devices, whose sign faces have ceased to display or have never displayed
advertising copy
, are subject to control and removal when
advertising is added or affixed and becomes visible from the main traveled
way.
(e) The re-erection of
any advertising device that is abandoned,
discontinued or appropriated requires the submission and approval of a new
application for each sign face pursuant to rule
5501:2-2-05 of the
Administrative Code and must be erected in a conforming location.
(B) Multiple message and variable message sign faces: such sign faces may be permitted on the interstate system, federal aid primary system, or national highway system under the following conditions:
(1) Each message or
advertising copy shall remain fixed for at least
eight seconds;
(2) When a message
or advertising copy changes by remote control or electronic process, it shall
be accomplished in three seconds or less;
(3) No such sign face, except as provided in
paragraph (A)(3)(b)(iv) of this rule, shall be placed within one thousand feet
of another multiple message or variable message sign face visible in the same
direction of travel;
(4) Such sign
faces shall contain a default design that will freeze the device in one
position if a malfunction occurs;
(5) The maximum area for a multiple message
or variable message sign face shall be twelve hundred square feet, excluding
decorative bases and supports; and
(6) Only one multiple message or variable
message sign face shall be permitted at a single location facing the same
direction.
(C) Modifications.
(1) A conforming advertising
device may be modified as follows:
(a) The
addition of lights or other illumination to the advertising structure if such
device did not previously have lighting for illumination; or
(b) Replacement of parts on the sign
structure with materials other than the kind of materials with which the device
was originally erected; or
(c)
Reduce, enlarge or rebuild the advertising device or its structure; however,
any enlargement of the sign face must meet the size criteria of paragraph
(A)(2) of this rule; or
(d) Change
any sign face to a multiple message or to include variable message
components.
(e) The addition of a
temporary extension to the outside dimensions of a sign face
may not exceed
twenty percent of the permitted size and may be maintained for a temporary
period up to twelve months. Thereafter, the temporary extension must be removed
for at least sixty days or the permit holder's permit will be
revoked.
(2) No
advertising device or sign face may be modified unless the permit holder has
completed a modification application and submitted it to the advertising device
control section. No modifications may be made until such application has been
approved by the advertising device control section. All modification
applications will be processed on a first come-first serve basis and will be
time and date stamped.
(3) A one
hundred dollar processing fee per sign face shall accompany any modification
application except that the processing fee to modify a sign face to a multiple
message or variable message advertising device shall be four hundred dollars.
If the processing fee is not submitted with the modification application, the
application will be returned unprocessed.
(4) No modification application will be
processed until the permit holder has paid all delinquent renewal fees for all
currently held permits.
(5) If ODOT
discovers any advertising device or sign face has been modified without the
prior approval of ODOT, ODOT will notify the permit holder and request that a
modification application and doubled processing fees be submitted within thirty
days from the receipt of the notice or the permit will be subject to
cancellation pursuant to paragraph (G) of rule
5501:2-2-05 of the
Administrative Code.
(6) No
modification application will be processed until the permit holder has removed
all illegal advertising devices it
controls.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Ohio may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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