Tenn. Code Ann. § 54-21-102 (2026)

As used in this chapter:

• (1) "Adjacent area" means that area within six hundred sixty feet (660') of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of interstate and primary highways and visible from the main traveled way of the interstate or primary highways;

• (2) "Changeable message sign" means an outdoor advertising device that displays a series of messages at intervals by means of digital display or mechanical rotating panels;

• (3) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of transportation or the commissioner's designee;

• (4) "Compensation" means the exchange of anything of value, including money, securities, real property interests, personal property interests, goods or services, promise of future payment, or forbearance of debt;

• (5) "Conforming" means an outdoor advertising device that was permitted under and conforms to the zoning, size, lighting, and spacing criteria established in accordance with either the current agreement entered into between the commissioner and the secretary of transportation of the United States on or about October 18, 1984, or the original agreement entered into on or about November 11, 1971, as authorized in § 54-21-113. Any permitted outdoor advertising device that continues to conform to either the current agreement or the original agreement and conditions provided in § 54-21-113 is considered conforming;

• (6) "Customary maintenance" means maintenance of a nonconforming outdoor advertising device, which may include, but shall not exceed, the replacement of the sign face and stringers in like materials, and the replacement in like materials of up to fifty percent (50%) of the device's poles, posts, or other support structures; provided, that the replacement of any poles, posts, or other support structures is limited to one (1) time within a twenty-four-month period;

• (7) "Department" means the department of transportation;

• (8) "Destroyed" means, with respect to a nonconforming outdoor advertising device, that, in the case of wooden sign structures, sixty percent (60%) or more of the upright supports of a sign structure are physically damaged such that normal repair practices would call for replacement of the broken supports or, in the case of metal sign structures, replacement of at least thirty percent (30%) of the length above ground of each broken, bent, or twisted support;

• (9) "Digital display" means a type of changeable message sign that displays a series of messages at intervals through the electronic coding of lights or light emitting diodes or any other means that does not use or require mechanical rotating panels;

• (10) "Directional sign" means an official sign that identifies a site, attraction, or activity and directional information useful to a traveler in locating the site, attraction, or activity, including mileage, route numbers, or exit numbers;

• (11) "Erect" means to construct, build, raise, assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other way bring into being or establish, but does not apply to changes of copy treatment on an existing outdoor advertising device;

• (12) "Facility" means a commercial or industrial facility, or other facility open to the public, that operates with regular business hours on a year-round basis within a building or defined physical space, which may include a structure other than a building, together with any immediately adjacent parking areas; provided, that activity conducted in a temporary structure or a structure operated only on a seasonal basis may be considered a facility for the purpose of allowing an on-premises device to be located on the same property, but the device is only allowed on a temporary basis during the period the facility is actually conducting activity;

• (13) "Information center" means an area or site established and maintained at a safety rest area for the purpose of informing the public of places of interest within this state and providing other information the commissioner may consider desirable;

• (14) "Interstate system" means that portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways, located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated, by the commissioner, and approved by the secretary of transportation of the United States, pursuant to title 23 of the United States Code;

• (15) "Main traveled way" means the traveled way of a highway on which through traffic is carried. In the case of a divided highway, the traveled way of each of the separated roadways for traffic in opposite directions is a main traveled way. "Main traveled way" does not include such facilities as frontage roads, turning roadways, or parking areas;

• (16) "Nonconforming" means an outdoor advertising device that does not conform to the zoning, size, lighting, or spacing criteria established by and in accordance with either the current agreement entered into between the commissioner and the secretary of transportation of the United States, or in accordance with the original agreement entered into on or about November 11, 1971, as authorized in § 54-21-113. Any outdoor advertising device that continues to conform to either the current agreement or the original agreement as provided in § 54-21-113 shall not be considered nonconforming;

• (17) "On-premises device" means a sign:
  • (A) That is located within fifty feet (50') of, and on the same parcel of property and on the same side of the highway as, the facility that owns or operates the sign or within fifty feet (50') of, and on the same parcel of property and on the same side of the highway as, the entrance to the parcel of property upon which two (2) or more facilities are located; and
  • (B) For which compensation is not being received and not intended to be received;

• (18) "Outdoor advertising device":
  • (A) Means a sign that is operated or owned by a person or entity that is earning compensation directly or indirectly from a third party or parties for the placement of a message on the sign; and
  • (B) Does not include a sign that is an on-premises device or other type of sign exempt from regulation under this chapter;

• (19) "Person" means and includes an individual, a partnership, an association, a corporation, or other entity;

• (20) "Primary system" means that portion of connected main highways, located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated by the commissioner, and approved by the secretary of transportation of the United States, pursuant to title 23 of the United States Code, including highways designated as part of the national highway system and highways formerly designated as part of the federal-aid primary system;

• (21) "Safety rest area" means an area or site established and maintained within or adjacent to the right-of-way by or under public supervision or control, for the convenience of the traveling public;

• (22) "Sign" means an outdoor sign, light, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing which is designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform any part of the advertising or informative contents of which is visible from any place on the main traveled way of an interstate system or primary system;

• (23) "State system" means that portion of highways located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated by the commissioner;

• (24) "Traveled way" means the portion of a roadway for the movement of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders;

• (25) "Unzoned commercial or industrial area":
  • (A) Means an area on which there is located one (1) or more permanent structures within which a commercial or industrial business is actively conducted, and which is equipped with all customary utilities facilities and open to the public regularly or regularly used by employees of the business as their principal work station, or which, due to the nature of the business, is equipped, staffed, and accessible to the public as necessary, and includes the area along the highway extending outward six hundred feet (600') from and beyond the edge of such activity in each direction and a corresponding zone directly across a primary highway that is not also a limited access highway when the area is not primarily residential in character or a:
    • (i) Public park;
    • (ii) Public playground;
    • (iii) Public recreational area;
    • (iv) Public forest, wildlife, or waterfowl refuge;
    • (v) Historic scenic area; or
    • (vi) Cemetery;
  • (B) Does not include land across the highway from a commercial or industrial activity when the highway is an interstate or controlled access primary highway;
  • (C) Must be measured from the outer edges of the regularly used buildings, parking lots, storage, processing, or landscaped areas of the commercial or industrial activity, not from the property lines of the activity, and the measurements must be along or parallel to the edge of the pavement of the highway; and
  • (D) Does not include the following activities conducted within the area, when considered for purposes of outdoor advertising:
    • (i) Outdoor advertising structures;
    • (ii) Agricultural, forestry, ranching, grazing, farming, and related activities, including wayside fresh produce stands;
    • (iii) Transient or temporary activities;
    • (iv) Activities not visible from the main traveled way;
    • (v) Activities more than six hundred sixty feet (660') from the nearest edge of the right-of-way;
    • (vi) Activities conducted in a building primarily used as a residence; and
    • (vii) Railroad tracks and minor sidings;

• (26) "Utility signs" means warning signs, notices, or markers that are customarily erected and maintained for operational and public safety purposes by publicly or privately owned utilities, railroads, ferries, airports, or other entities that provide utility or transportation services; and

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

Amended by 2020 Tenn. Acts, ch. 706, s 8, eff. 6/22/2020.

Amended by 2019 Tenn. Acts, ch. 169, s 1, eff. 7/1/2019.

Acts 1972, ch. 655, § 2; impl. am. Acts 1972, ch. 829, § 7; T.C.A., § 54-2602; Acts 1980, ch. 470, §§1, 2; 2007 , ch. 76, § 1; 2007 , ch. 427, §§ 1, 2; 2008 , ch. 1155, § 1.