(1) "Advertising device" means any outdoor sign, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or any other contrivance designed, intended, or used to advertise or to give information in the nature of advertising and having the capacity of being visible from the travel way of any state highway, except any advertising device on a vehicle using the highway. The term "vehicle using the highway" does not include any vehicle parked near said highway for advertising purposes.

(1.5) (a) "Comprehensive development" means a group of two or more lots or parcels of land used primarily for multiple separate commercial or industrial activities that:

(I) Is located entirely on one side of a highway;

(II) Consists of lots or parcels that are contiguous except for public or private roadways or driveways that provide access to the development;

(III) Has been approved by the relevant local government as a development with a common identity and plan for public and private improvements;

(IV) Has common areas such as parking, amenities, and landscaping; and

(V) Has an approved plan of common ownership in which the owners have recorded irrevocable rights to use common areas and that provides for the management and maintenance of common areas.

(b) "Comprehensive development" includes all land used or to be used or occupied for the activities of the development, including buildings, parking, storage and service areas, streets, driveways, and reasonably necessary landscaped areas. A comprehensive development includes only land that is used for a purpose reasonably related to the activities of the development other than an attempt to qualify the land for on-premise advertising.

(2) "Defined area" means a geographically described economic area in which tourist-related businesses are located, which area would suffer substantial economic hardship by the removal of any tourist-related advertising device in that area providing directional information about goods and services in the interest of the traveling public.

(3) "Department" means the department of transportation.

(4) "Directional advertising device" includes, but is not limited to: Advertising devices containing directional information to facilitate emergency vehicle access to remote locations or about public places owned or operated by federal, state, or local governments or their agencies; publicly or privately owned natural phenomena, historic, cultural, scientific, educational, and religious sites; and areas of natural scenic beauty or naturally suited for outdoor recreation, deemed to be in the interest of the traveling public. Such devices shall conform to standards promulgated by the department pursuant to section 43-1-415, which standards shall conform to the national policy.

(5) "Erect" means to construct or allow to be constructed.

(6) "Highway" means any road on the state highway system, as defined in section 43-2-101 (1).

(7) "Informational site" means an area established and maintained within a highway rest area wherein panels for the display of advertising and informational plaques may be erected and maintained so as not to be visible from the travel way of any state highway.

(8) "Interstate system" means the system of highways as defined in section 43-2-101 (2).

(9) "Maintain" means to preserve, keep in repair, continue, or replace an advertising device.

(10) "Municipality" has the same meaning as defined in section 31-1-101 (6), C.R.S.

(11) "National policy" means the provisions relating to control of advertising, signs, displays, and devices adjacent to the interstate system contained in 23 U.S.C. sec. 131 and the national standards or regulations promulgated pursuant to such provisions.

(12) "Nonconforming advertising device" means any advertising device that was lawfully erected under state law and has been lawfully maintained in accordance with the provisions of this part 4 or prior state law, except those advertising devices allowed by section 43-1-404 (1).

(13) "Official advertising device" means any advertising device erected for a public purpose authorized by law, but the term shall not include devices advertising any private business.

(14) "On-premise advertising device" means:

(a) An advertising device advertising the sale or lease of the property on which it is located or advertising activities conducted on the property on which it is located; or

(b) An advertising device located within a comprehensive development that advertises any activity conducted in the comprehensive development, so long as the placement of the advertising device does not cause a reduction of federal aid highway moneys pursuant to 23 U.S.C. sec. 131.

(15) "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, association, or organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not, and any government, governmental subdivision, or agency thereof.

(16) "Tourist-related advertising device" means any legally erected and maintained advertising device which was in existence on May 5, 1976, and which provides directional information about goods and services in the interest of the traveling public limited to the following: Lodging, campsite, food service, recreational facility, tourist attraction, educational or historical site or feature, scenic attraction, gasoline station, or garage.

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

(18) "Would work or suffer a substantial economic hardship" means tending to cause or causing a significant negative economic effect, such as a loss of business income, an increase in unemployment, a reduction in sales taxes or other revenue to the state or other governmental entity, a reduction in real estate taxes to the county, and other significant negative economic factors.