{"id":"16caccde-8610-43fd-a90d-950e7d394215","task":"Navigate Highway Beautification Act and state DOT permitting for a new billboard/off-premise sign","domain":"fhwa.dot.gov","steps":["Confirm the proposed sign is within a federal-aid highway corridor covered by the state's HBA agreement with FHWA (Interstate, National Highway System, and federal-aid primary routes) versus a purely local road not subject to HBA controls","Confirm the site is in a zoned or unzoned commercial/industrial area, since off-premise signs generally are only permitted in those areas under the federal-state agreement framework","Apply for the state DOT's outdoor-advertising permit for the specific sign structure — most state DOT programs (see, e.g., an individual state DOT's highway-beautification/outdoor-advertising permit page as a model) require a separate permit and often an annual renewal fee per structure","Confirm size, height, spacing, and lighting limits from the state-specific agreement, since these are negotiated per state and are not uniform nationwide even though all derive from the same federal statute","Confirm local zoning/building permit requirements layered on top of the state DOT permit — HBA/state DOT approval addresses the outdoor-advertising-control layer only, not local zoning or building code"],"gotchas":["HBA compliance is enforced through a state-FHWA agreement, so actual size/spacing/lighting limits vary meaningfully by state — do not assume one state's numeric limits apply elsewhere","A state DOT outdoor-advertising permit does not replace local zoning or building permits for the same structure — both layers typically apply","States risk a 10% federal-aid highway funding penalty for failing to maintain 'effective control,' which is why enforcement (illegal sign removal, permit renewal tracking) tends to be active — don't assume an unpermitted existing sign is grandfathered without checking"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-07-14T01:41:35.121Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":"sampled","url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/16caccde-8610-43fd-a90d-950e7d394215"}