1128                             LAWS OF MARYLAND                        CH. 589

plaque, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing regardless of con
tent, which is designed, intended or used to advertise or inform the
traveling public of the sale or lease of the property, a product grown,
produced or manufactured therein or thereon or products for sale
therein or therefrom or a service performed therein or thereon, ad-
vertise the name of the property owner, agent, assignee or lessee of
the property.

(i) "Erect" means to construct, build, raise, assemble, place, affix,
attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other way bring into being or
establish but it shall not include any of the foregoing activities when
performed as an incident to the change of advertising message or
customary maintenance or repair of a sign or sign structure.

(j) "Center line of the Highway" means a line equidistant from
the edges of the median separating the main-traveled ways of a
divided interstate or other limited access highway, or the center line
of the main-traveled way of a non-divided highway.

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

(L) "INTERSTATE HIGHWAY" MEANS ANY HIGHWAY
WITHIN THAT PORTION OF THE STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM
SO DESIGNATED OR AS MAY HEREAFTER BE SO DESIG-
NATED BY THE STATE ROADS COMMISSION WHICH HAS
BEEN APPROVED BY THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTA-
TION PURSUANT TO SECTION 103 OF TITLE 23, UNITED
STATES CODE.

(M) "EXPRESSWAY" MEANS ANY HIGHWAY CON-
STRUCTED AS AN EXPRESSWAY AS THAT TERM IS DE-
FINED IN SECTION 29 (C) OF ARTICLE 89B OF THE ANNO-
TATED CODE OF MARYLAND.

252. Limitations On Outdoor Advertising On Federal-Aid Primary
System Of Highways:

No person, firm or corporation shall, after July 1, 1968 use, lease,
rent or permit the use of his, or its property or buildings thereon
within six hundred sixty feet (660') of the nearest edge of the right
of way of the Federal-Aid Primary System except in zoned and un-
zoned commercial and industrial areas within this State, for the pur-
pose of erecting or maintaining thereon any new outdoor advertising
sign, display or device which is wholly or partially visible from the
main traveled way of such highway, except as hereinafter provided:

(a)   General: The following signs shall not be permitted:

(i) Signs which imitate or resemble any official traffic sign, signal,
or device.

(ii) Signs which are erected or maintained upon trees or painted,
or drawn upon rocks or other natural features.

(iii) Signs which are erected or maintained in such a manner as
to obscure, or otherwise interfere with the effectiveness of an official
traffic sign, signal, or device, or obstruct or interfere with the driver's
view of approaching, merging or intersecting traffic.

(b)  Size of signs:

(i) The maximum area for any one sign shall be 800 1000 square