HIGHWAY BEAUTIFICATION ACT
 
Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 (HBA) into law on October 22, 1965. In essence, it allows the federal government to control outdoor advertising along 306,000 miles of Federal-Aid Primary, Interstate and National Highway System roads. Specifically, it allows the location of billboards in commercial and industrial areas, mandates a state-compliance program, requires the development of state standards, promotes the speedy removal of illegal signs and provides compensation for takings.

Other than federal mandates, states can enact their own regulations. On the state level:

 
  • Billboards must comply with size, lighting and spacing provisions accorded by state and government regulations.
  • Billboard controls extend to all Federal-Aid Primaries, Interstates and other highways that are part of the National Highway System.
  • States can remove nonconforming signs along highways at their discretion, but must give adequate compensation.
  • If a state does not comply with HBA provisions, its highway allocations may be reduced.
  • States and localities can enforce stricter laws than those dictated by the HBA.
In 1995, President Clinton signed the National Highway System Designation Act into law. Among other provisions, this act designated a 160,955-mile National Highway System (NHS) for prioritizing federal funding in the future. It also included an amendment to subsections of the HBA. Specifically, the scenic byways provision was amended to give states the flexibility to exclude from state or federal scenic byways designation any segment of a road that it determines to be inconsistent with the state's criteria for designating scenic byways.
Additionally, the NHS House-Senate Conference committee agreed to amend the HBA of 1965 to clarify that the erection of new billboards in certain "segmented" areas along state or federal designated scenic byways was acceptable so long as the state's determination is reasonable. The current Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) policy was adopted in 1993.