Bill Text: VA SB1505 | 2019 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Highways, bridges, interchanges, and other transportation facilities; naming, cost of signage.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2019-03-25 - Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0802) [SB1505 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2019-SB1505-Enrolled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §33.2-213 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§33.2-213. Naming highways, bridges, interchanges, and other transportation facilities.
The Board shall have the power and duty to give suitable names
to state highways, bridges, interchanges, and other transportation facilities
and change the names of any highways, bridges, interchanges, or other
transportation facilities forming a part of the systems of state highways. The
names of private entities, as defined in §33.2-1800, located within the
Commonwealth shall not be used for such purposes unless such private entity
pays the Department an annual naming rights fee as determined by the Board. The
Department shall place and maintain appropriate signs indicating the names of
highways, bridges, interchanges, and other transportation facilities named by
the Board or by the General Assembly. The costs of producing, placing, and
maintaining these signs shall be paid by the localities in which they are
located or by the private entity whose name is attached to the highway, bridge,
interchange, or other transportation facility. However, for a highway,
bridge, interchange, or other transportation facility named after a state
official killed during the performance of his official duties, the costs of
producing, placing, and maintaining these signs shall be paid from Commonwealth
Transportation Funds. For purposes of this section, "state
official" includes law-enforcement officers employed by the Department of
State Police and state highway transportation workers. No name shall be
given to any state highway, bridge, interchange, or other transportation
facility by the Board unless and until the Board receives (i) for a naming after
a state official, a letter or resolution from the head of the state agency by which
the state official was employed requesting such naming or (ii) for a naming other
than after a state official, a resolution from the governing body of the
locality within which a portion of the facility to be named is located a
resolution of that governing body requesting such naming, except in such
cases where a private entity has requested the naming. No highway, bridge,
interchange, or other transportation facility previously named by the Board or
the General Assembly shall be eligible for renaming by a private entity, unless
such naming incorporates the previous name. The Board shall develop and approve
guidelines governing the naming of highways, bridges, interchanges, and other
transportation facilities by private entities and the applicable fees for such
naming rights. Such fees shall be deposited in the Highway Maintenance and
Operating Fund established pursuant to §33.2-1530.
No name shall be eligible for the naming rights under this section if it in any way reasonably connotes anything that (i) is profane, obscene, or vulgar; (ii) is sexually explicit or graphic; (iii) is excretory related; (iv) is descriptive of intimate body parts or genitals; (v) is descriptive of illegal activities or substances; (vi) condones or encourages violence; or (vii) is socially, racially, or ethnically offensive or disparaging.