Evans v. UDOT , 437 P.3d 561 ( 2018 )


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    2018 UT App 207
    THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS
    JAMIE EVANS AND EVANS BILLBOARDS LLC,
    Appellants,
    v.
    UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION,
    Appellee.
    Opinion
    No. 20160994-CA
    Filed November 1, 2018
    Fourth District Court, Provo Department
    The Honorable Lynn W. Davis
    No. 130400213
    Troy L. Booher, Julie J. Nelson, and Steve K. Gordon,
    Attorneys for Appellants
    Sean D. Reyes, Stanford E. Purser, Mark E. Burns,
    and Renee Spooner, Attorneys for Appellee
    JUDGE GREGORY K. ORME authored this Opinion, in which
    JUDGES MICHELE M. CHRISTIANSEN FORSTER and KATE A. TOOMEY
    concurred.
    ORME, Judge:
    ¶1      Appellants Jamie Evans and Evans Billboards LLC
    (collectively, Evans) appeal the district court’s decision
    upholding the denial of two outdoor advertising applications by
    the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). We reverse.
    BACKGROUND
    ¶2     In 2008, Evans submitted applications to construct two
    advertising signs near Exit 257 on Interstate 15 (I-15) in Spanish
    Fork, Utah. Because the sign locations were within 500 feet of an
    Evans v. UDOT
    interchange, violating the Utah Outdoor Advertising Act, see
    
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-505
    (3)(c)(i)(A) (LexisNexis Supp. 2017), 1
    UDOT denied both applications. Evans nevertheless erected the
    two signs. The district court ordered Evans to remove them, and
    Evans appealed that decision to this court. See Spanish Fork City
    v. Evans Grader & Paving, Inc., 
    2014 UT App 178
    , 
    332 P.3d 980
    .
    We affirmed, holding that both signs were “illegal
    and . . . subject to removal” because they were constructed
    without a permit. Id. ¶ 6.
    ¶3     Following UDOT’s 2008 denial of Evans’s applications,
    UDOT reconfigured Exit 257 as part of its I-15 Core Project.
    Exit 257 now gives drivers the option of leaving I-15 southbound
    to connect to either U.S. Highway 6 (US-6) or Spanish Fork
    Main Street (SR-156). It has three exit lanes: two of those lanes
    form a bridge to cross over I-15 and connect to US-6 eastbound,
    and the other lane continues parallel to I-15 until it connects to
    SR-156.
    ¶4     In 2012, following this reconfiguration, Evans once again
    applied for two sign permits for essentially the same locations.
    UDOT denied those applications because it determined that the
    proposed signs were still within 500 feet of the interchange at
    Exit 257. Evans challenged this decision in the district court.
    Affirming UDOT’s denial of the applications, the district court
    determined that the signs violated the Utah Outdoor
    Advertising Act because the Act’s purpose “is to protect the 500
    foot area around an interchange from advertising signs.” Evans
    appeals.
    1. The Utah Outdoor Advertising Act has since been amended
    and renumbered. For convenience, we cite the most recent
    version of the Act, which remains unchanged as to the relevant
    sections.
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    Evans v. UDOT
    ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW
    ¶5      Evans’s primary contention is that the district court
    misinterpreted the meaning of an “intersecting highway” under
    the statutory definition of “pavement widening” in the Utah
    Outdoor Advertising Act. “We review questions of statutory
    interpretation for correctness, affording no deference to the
    district court’s legal conclusions.” Bank of America v. Adamson,
    
    2017 UT 2
    , ¶ 7, 
    391 P.3d 196
     (quotation simplified).
    ANALYSIS
    ¶6     The Utah Outdoor Advertising Act (the Act) is “the
    statutory basis for the regulation of outdoor advertising,”
    balancing concerns of “public safety” 2 and preservation of “the
    natural scenic beauty of lands bordering on highways,” with the
    goal of ensuring that outdoor advertising remains “a
    standardized medium of communication throughout the state.”
    
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-501
    (1) (LexisNexis 2009). The Act fulfills
    the Utah-Federal Agreement, which conditions the grant of
    federal highway funds to Utah on “Utah agree[ing] to manage
    and regulate outdoor advertising along the federal highway
    system.” Utah Admin. Code R933-5-1. See generally 23 U.S.C.
    2. As we gather from oral argument, the principal safety concern
    is with drivers becoming distracted by billboards when they
    should be concentrating on driving. This concern is minimal
    when drivers are simply cruising down a divided highway, but
    it may become significant when drivers are exiting or entering a
    highway or navigating intersections and interchanges. The
    applicable regulations are rather complex and technically
    challenging, from which it follows that our analysis is as well,
    but the regulations’ overall purpose is not mystification;
    primarily, it is safety.
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    Evans v. UDOT
    § 131 (2012) (The Highway Beautification Act); Utah Admin.
    Code R933-5-2 (The Utah-Federal Agreement).
    ¶7     Under the Act, signs are prohibited within 500 feet of an
    interchange. 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-505
    (3)(c)(i)(A) (LexisNexis
    Supp. 2017). An interchange is an area “where traffic is
    channeled off or onto an interstate route.” 
    Id.
     § 72-7-502(11). The
    500-foot prohibition around the interchange is “measured along
    the interstate highway or freeway from the sign to the nearest
    point of the beginning or ending of pavement widening at the
    exit from or entrance to the main-traveled way.” Id.
    § 72-7-505(3)(c)(i)(A). The pavement widening is (1) the point of
    the gore or (2) “where the intersecting lane begins to parallel the
    other lanes of traffic.” Id. § 72-7-502(22). See also Young Elec. Sign
    Co. v. Utah Dep’t of Transp., 
    2005 UT App 169
    , ¶ 7, 
    110 P.3d 1118
    (stating that “pavement widening” is synonymous with the
    definition of “point of widening”).
    ¶8     Both sides in this case agree that the pavement widening
    occurs at the point of the gore, which is the point of the
    triangular area, defined by two solid white lines, where Exit 257
    diverges from I-15. 3 See Utah Admin. Code R933-2-2(21) (“’Point
    3. Evans argues that pavement widening occurs at the point of
    the gore, and that the exit lanes are deceleration lanes. These two
    assertions seem at odds with our decision in Young Electric Sign
    Co. v. Utah Department of Transportation, 
    2005 UT App 169
    , 
    110 P.3d 1118
    , in which we determined that pavement widening
    occurs at the point of the gore when “there is no acceleration lane
    and the interchange on-ramp immediately dies into the
    freeway.” Id. ¶ 9 (emphasis added) (quotation simplified). And
    “where there exists an acceleration lane,” pavement widening
    occurs “where the intersecting lane begins to parallel the other
    lanes of traffic.” Id. (quotation simplified). Because acceleration
    and deceleration lanes share the same definition under the Utah
    (continued…)
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    Evans v. UDOT
    of the gore’ means the point of the area delineated by two solid
    white lines that is between a permanently constructed
    continuing lane of a through-roadway and a permanently
    constructed lane used to enter or exit the continuing lane,
    including similar areas between merging or splitting
    highways.”). There is no dispute that Evans’s signs are within
    500 feet of the point of the gore—393.90 feet and 108.10 feet,
    respectively.
    ¶9     But signs are not prohibited within 500 feet of an
    interchange if the point of the gore is more than 2,640 feet—
    half a mile—“from the center line of the intersecting highway
    of the interchange,” because by statutory definition there is
    no pavement widening for the purpose of measuring the 500-
    foot prohibition. 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-502
    (22) (LexisNexis
    Supp. 2017). UDOT concedes that “there was, and is,
    no intersecting highway” within 2,640 feet of the point of
    (…continued)
    Administrative Code, we see no reason why our interpretation
    of pavement widening in Young should not apply to deceleration
    lanes as well. Utah Admin. Code R933-2-2(2) (defining
    acceleration and deceleration lanes as “speed change lanes
    created for the purpose of enabling a vehicle to increase or
    decrease its speed to merge into, or out of, traffic on the
    main-traveled way”). Accordingly, the point of the gore occurs
    where there is no deceleration lane, only an off-ramp, and where
    there is a deceleration lane, the pavement widening occurs
    where the intersecting lane ceases to parallel the other lanes of
    traffic. See 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-502
    (22) (LexisNexis Supp.
    2017). In this case, one of the three exit lanes for Exit 257 is
    clearly an off-ramp, not a deceleration lane, because it
    immediately diverges from I-15 without allowing a vehicle to
    “merge into, or out of, traffic.” For that reason, Evans is correct
    that pavement widening occurs at the point of the gore.
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    Evans v. UDOT
    the gore, but insists that allowing Evans’s signs would “violate
    the letter and spirit of [the Act] and the Utah-Federal
    Agreement.”4 The district court agreed, concluding that, “for the
    purposes of interpreting the statutes,” the point where Exit 257
    crosses over I-15 (the Bridge) is an intersecting highway. And
    because the Bridge is 2,549 feet from the point of the gore, the
    court concluded that Evans’s signs were within 500 feet of an
    interchange and therefore prohibited.
    ¶10 On appeal, Evans argues that the Bridge is not an
    “intersecting highway” and that, because there is no intersecting
    highway within 2,640 feet of the point of the gore at Exit 257, the
    signs should be allowed. 5
    4. UDOT has repeatedly argued that the 2,640-foot limit is
    contrary to the Utah-Federal Agreement, and Utah would
    therefore be in violation of that agreement to allow signs within
    500 feet of an interchange. See Young, 
    2005 UT App 169
    , ¶ 9 n.4.
    Essentially, the 2,640-foot limit hinders UDOT’s enforcement of
    the 500-foot prohibition of signs around an interchange in some
    circumstances. Although the Utah-Federal Agreement does not
    provide a limit on how far a pavement widening may be from
    the intersecting highway, it is clear from the statute that the
    Legislature does intend to impose such a limit. Our role is to
    review and interpret the statutes as the Legislature intended, not
    to deviate from the statutory language as best meets UDOT’s
    view of its mission.
    5. Evans also contends that the exit lanes are deceleration lanes,
    and that the Act “expressly allows billboards near deceleration
    lanes by excluding deceleration lanes from the definition of
    ‘interchange.’” Because we reverse on the district court’s
    interpretation of “intersecting highway,” we have no occasion to
    decide whether the exit lanes are deceleration lanes.
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    Evans v. UDOT
    I. The Parties’ Interpretations
    ¶11 The Act does not define an “intersecting highway,”
    and the parties offer competing interpretations of this term.
    UDOT contends that the Bridge is an intersecting highway
    because Title 72 of the Utah Code (the Transportation Code)
    defines “highway” as “any public road, street, alley, lane,
    court, place, viaduct, tunnel, culvert, bridge, or structure laid
    out or erected for public use,” 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-1-102
    (7)
    (LexisNexis 2009), and the Bridge is “both a public bridge and a
    public road that crosses over Interstate 15.” This interpretation
    would support the district court’s conclusion that, although I-
    15 and US-6 do not intersect, the interchange does intersect
    with I-15 “for the purposes of interpreting the statutes.”
    ¶12 In contrast, Evans contends that, because an interchange
    is defined as an area channeling traffic off and onto
    “another federal, state, county, city, or other route,” the
    Legislature intended “intersecting highway” to mean that “other
    route.” 
    Id.
     § 72-7-502(11) (Supp. 2017). But the Act does not
    support either of these interpretations.
    ¶13 When interpreting a statute, “our primary goal is
    to evince the true intent and purpose of the Legislature.” State
    v. Davis, 
    2011 UT 57
    , ¶ 21, 
    266 P.3d 765
     (quotation simplified).
    “The best indicator of legislative intent is the plain language
    of the statutes themselves,” and “[w]e read the plain language
    of the statute as a whole and interpret its provisions in
    harmony with other statutes in the same chapter and
    related chapters.” Hertzske v. Snyder, 
    2017 UT 4
    , ¶ 10, 
    390 P.3d 307
     (quotation simplified). “Finally, we avoid any interpretation
    which renders parts or words in a statute inoperative or
    superfluous in order to give effect to every word of a statute.”
    Monarrez v. Utah Dep’t of Transp., 
    2016 UT 10
    , ¶ 11, 
    368 P.3d 846
    (quotation simplified).
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    ¶14 UDOT’s interpretation fails to give effect to every word of
    the statute. Because the Bridge is an off-ramp and therefore part
    of the interchange, see Utah Admin. Code R933-2-2(2), UDOT
    contends that an “intersecting highway” can include
    the interchange itself. But such an interpretation would
    render the entire 2,640-foot limit unnecessary because the
    interchange would always intersect the interstate highway at
    the exit. The statute clearly states that the distance is to be
    measured from the pavement widening to “the center line of
    the intersecting highway of the interchange.” 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-502
    (22) (Supp. 2017) (emphasis added). We recognize that
    the preposition “of” is susceptible to varying interpretations,
    see generally Of, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary
    1565 (1993), but, to give effect to every word of the statute,
    the only reasonable interpretation of this statutory provision is
    that the pavement widening must be within 2,640 feet from
    the centerline of the highway intersecting the interchange—not
    components of the interchange intersecting each other.
    ¶15 Furthermore, the language of the Act does not
    support such an expansive interpretation of “highway” for this
    purpose. Section 505 uses the phrase, “streets, roads, or
    highways” several times, demonstrating that “highway” is
    not considered a street or road. See 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7
    -
    505(3)(d) (LexisNexis 2009). Because “intersecting highway”
    does not have the same expansive meaning as “highway” in
    section 102 of the Transportation Code, UDOT’s interpretation is
    incorrect.
    ¶16 Evans also incorrectly interprets the statute, arguing that
    by inserting the statutory definitions of “interchange”
    and “pavement widening” into the 500-foot prohibition statute,
    the Legislature clearly intended “intersecting highway” to
    mean “other route.” While this view is logical, Evans fails to
    point to anything in the statute that supports the claim the
    Legislature intended such a meaning.
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    II. Definition of “Intersecting Highway”
    ¶17 Because the Act provides no specialized meaning for
    “intersecting highway,” we turn to the plain and ordinary
    meaning of these terms. 6 See State v. Rasabout, 
    2015 UT 72
    , ¶ 43,
    
    356 P.3d 1258
     (Lee, J., concurring). But, in doing so, we interpret
    “the meaning of the text given the relevant context of the statute
    (including, particularly, the structure and language of the
    statutory scheme).” Olsen v. Eagle Mountain City, 
    2011 UT 10
    ,
    ¶ 12, 
    248 P.3d 465
    . And we “read and interpret statutory
    provisions in harmony with other provisions in the same statute
    and with other related statutes.” State v. Jeffries, 
    2009 UT 57
    , ¶ 9,
    
    217 P.3d 265
    .
    ¶18 “Intersect” is defined as “to meet and cross at a point.”
    Intersect, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1183
    (1993). See also Intersect, New Oxford American Dictionary 909
    (3d ed. 2010) (to “divide (something) by passing or lying across
    it”); Intersection, Black’s Law Dictionary 896 (9th ed. 2009) (“A
    place where two roads meet or form a junction.”). “Highway” is
    defined as “a main road,” connecting towns or cities. Highway,
    New Oxford American Dictionary 821 (3d ed. 2010). See also
    Highway, Black’s Law Dictionary 798 (9th ed. 2009) (“The main
    public road connecting towns or cities.”); Highway, Webster’s
    Third New International Dictionary 1069 (1993) (“[A] main
    direct road (as between one town or city and another.”)). Thus,
    6. We recognize that, under the Act, the Legislature has defined
    “intersection,” and that the term shares the same definition as
    “interchange.” See 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-502
    (11) (LexisNexis
    Supp. 2017). But “intersecting” does not share this definition
    because the 2,640-foot restriction is measured from “the center
    line of the intersecting highway of the interchange or intersection
    at grade,” indicating that these two terms hold different
    meanings. 
    Id.
     § 72-7-502(22) (emphases added).
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    Evans v. UDOT
    the plain meaning of an intersecting highway is a main public
    road that meets or crosses a street, road, or highway. This
    meaning is consistent with other sections of the Act where
    “highway” is not a term so expansive as to include every street
    or road. See 
    Utah Code Ann. §§ 72-7-502
    (1), -505(3)(d)
    (LexisNexis Supp. 2017).
    ¶19 Because the Act is “subject to and shall be superseded by
    conflicting provisions of the Utah-Federal Agreement,” 
    id.
    § 72-7-515(2) (2009), we must also interpret the meaning of
    “intersecting highway” to be in harmony with the agreement
    and the federal statutory scheme out of which it arises.
    ¶20 The agreement requires Utah to control outdoor
    advertising in “areas adjacent to the interstate and primary
    systems” within the State of Utah. Utah Admin. Code R933-5-2.
    See also 
    23 U.S.C. § 131
    (a)‒(b) (2012). It also specifies the criteria
    for outdoor advertising, particularly the sizing, spacing, and
    lighting of signs. And it requires that “[o]nly roads, streets and
    highways which enter directly into the main-traveled way of the
    primary highway shall be regarded as intersecting.” Utah Admin.
    Code R933-5-2(III) (emphasis added). Given this provision, and
    the statutory context of the Act, we conclude that an
    “intersecting highway” must be a “primary highway.”
    ¶21 In the case before us, the interchange is not “the main-
    traveled way of the primary highway.” 
    Id.
     A main-traveled way
    “means the through traffic lanes, including auxiliary lanes,
    acceleration lanes, deceleration lanes, or feeder systems,
    exclusive of frontage roads and ramps.” 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-502
    (14). See also Utah Admin. Code R933-5-2(I)(I)
    (providing that a main-traveled way is “the traveled way of a
    highway on which through traffic is carried”). An interchange
    cannot be a main-traveled way because it does not include
    “deceleration lanes, acceleration lanes, or feeder systems.” 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-502
    (11). Moreover, the 2,640-foot limit is
    20160994-CA                      10               
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    Evans v. UDOT
    measured from the “center line” of the intersecting highway. A
    “center line” is “a line equidistant from the edges of the median
    separating the main-traveled way of a divided interstate or other
    limited-access highway” or “the main-traveled way of a non-
    divided highway.” Utah Admin. Code R933-5-2(I)(G). Center
    lines occur only on main-traveled ways. Because an interchange
    is not a main-traveled way, and an intersecting highway clearly
    has a center line under the statute, the interchange is not a
    “primary highway.” For the Act and the Agreement to be in
    accord, the interchange must be the road that enters directly into
    or exits directly from “the main-traveled way of the primary
    highway,” or as the Legislature put it: “the intersecting
    highway.”
    ¶22 Because an “intersecting highway” must be a “primary
    highway,” and the Act does not define “primary highway,” we
    look to the Utah-Federal Agreement, and the federal statutes out
    of which it arises, to ascertain its meaning. A “primary highway”
    is a highway on the federal-aid primary system. See 
    23 U.S.C. § 131
    (a) (2012); 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-501
    (2) (LexisNexis 2009);
    Utah Admin. Code R933-5-2. As of 1991, the federal-aid highway
    system consisted of four parts: the interstate, primary,
    secondary, and urban systems. Congress then restructured this
    system into the National Highway System. See 
    23 U.S.C. § 103
    (a)
    (2012) (“[T]he Federal-aid system is the National Highway
    System.”). See also Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency
    Act of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-240, § 1006(a), (b)(2), 
    105 Stat. 1914
    ,
    1923, 1925 (1991). Now, the primary system is “the Federal-aid
    primary system in existence on June 1, 1991, and any highway
    which is not on such system but which is on the National
    Highway System.” 
    23 U.S.C. § 131
    (t). This change is reflected in
    the Act because it regulates not only “the interstate” system and
    “federal aid primary highway [system] existing as of June 1,
    1991,” as required by the Agreement, but also “the national
    highway system.” 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-501
    (2)‒(3). See also 
    id.
    §§ 72-7-502(26), -505(3)(ii)(A), -510(6)(a) (2009 & Supp. 2017).
    20160994-CA                     11               
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    ¶23 The National Highway System (the NHS) is comprised of
    “highway routes and connections to transportation facilities that
    . . . serve major population centers . . . and other major travel
    destinations,” and also “interstate and interregional travel and
    commerce.” 
    23 U.S.C. § 103
    (b)(1) (2012). Highways on the
    NHS, and those previously designated as federal-aid primary
    highways, are major roads that receive federal funding to ensure
    they can meet the “[t]ransportation needs of [the] 21st century.” 7
    
    23 U.S.C. § 101
    (b)(3) (2012). Because the federal-aid
    primary highway system and the NHS are main public roads,
    connecting towns and cities, they fit within the ordinary
    meaning of a highway. See Highway, Black’s Law Dictionary 798
    (9th ed. 2009).
    ¶24 Here, the district court included I-15 in its interpretation
    of “intersecting highway.” But an interstate highway cannot be
    an intersecting highway for two reasons. First, the entire
    2,640-foot limit would be superfluous because an interchange
    channels traffic off from and onto an interstate highway, see
    supra ¶ 14, and for that reason, the interstate would always
    intersect the interchange at the exit and no limit would be
    necessary. And second, while the interstate system is a part of
    the NHS, the primary system does not include the interstate
    system, and the Act and the Utah-Federal Agreement refer to
    them as two separate systems. See 
    23 U.S.C. § 131
    (a); Utah
    Admin. Code R933-5-2. Therefore, an interstate highway is not a
    primary highway.
    ¶25 Rather, to be in harmony with the statutory context of the
    Act, an “intersecting highway” is a primary highway on the
    7. Whether a highway constitutes a “primary highway” is
    determined by UDOT with approval by the Secretary of
    Transportation. 
    23 U.S.C. § 103
    (b)(3)(A) (2012). See also 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-1-102
    (6) (LexisNexis 2009).
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    Evans v. UDOT
    federal-aid primary system as of June 1, 1991, or on the NHS.
    Interpreting this term otherwise would put the Act at odds with
    legislative intent to adhere to the terms of the Agreement, which
    states that only streets, roads, and highways that directly
    intersect the main-traveled way of a primary highway are
    considered intersecting. See 
    Utah Code Ann. § 72-7-515
    (2)
    (stating that provisions of the Act “shall be superseded by
    conflicting provisions of the Utah-Federal Agreement”).
    ¶26 Accordingly, we conclude that an “intersecting highway”
    under section 505 of the Act is a primary highway that directly
    intersects the interchange in question.
    III. US-6 and SR-156
    ¶27 Because US-6 is a federal-aid primary highway and
    SR-156 is part of the NHS system of highways, they are both
    primary highways. 8 But neither primary highway intersects the
    8. See generally Utah Dep’t of Transp., Outdoor Advertising Control
    Map, http://arcg.is/04OLDW. US-6 is a part of the NHS because it
    is a non-interstate strategic highway that “provide[s] defense
    access, continuity, and emergency capabilities for the movement
    of personnel, materials, and equipment in both peacetime and
    wartime.” 
    23 U.S.C. § 103
    (b)(2)(D)(i) (2012). See Federal Highway
    Admin., U.S. Dep’t of Transp., National Highway System,
    https://hepgis.fhwa.dot.gov/fhwagis/. And SR-156 is a principal
    arterial route, a roadway that serves “major centers of
    metropolitan areas, provide[s] a high degree of mobility, and can
    also provide mobility through rural areas.” Federal Highway
    Admin., U.S. Dep’t of Transp., Highway Functional Classification
    Concepts, Criteria and Procedures, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/
    planning/processes/statewide/related/highway_functional_classi
    fications/section03.cfm [https://perma.cc/YYM6-L3NK]. See also
    (continued…)
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    Evans v. UDOT
    interchange within 2,640 feet of the pavement widening at Exit
    257.
    ¶28 UDOT calculated the distances to the intersecting
    highways by measuring from the point of the gore to the
    intersections of US-6 and SR-156 with I-15. This calculation is
    incorrect because a pavement widening is measured from the
    center line of the primary highway intersecting the
    interchange—not from where the primary highway intersects
    the interstate. In any event, neither US-6 nor SR-156 intersect the
    interchange within 2,640 feet of the point of the gore. US-6
    begins at the “Moark Connection Interchange of Route 15
    easterly through Spanish Fork Canyon,” Utah Code Ann.
    §-72-4-106(1) (LexisNexis Supp. 2017), which is more than four
    miles from the interchange at I-15. UDOT also determined that
    “[a]t no point does [the] legislative definition of [US]-6 include
    the southbound ramps off of the I-15 mainline in this area.” And
    SR-156 intersects I-15 more than 4,400 feet beyond the point of
    the gore. Because this intersection is proximate to the
    intersection of SR-156 and the interchange, it intersects more
    than 2,640 feet from the pavement widening.
    ¶29 Because there is no “intersecting highway” within 2,640
    feet of the point of the gore at Exit 257 and, consequently, no
    500-foot prohibition around the interchange, the district court
    erred in its conclusion that Evans’s signs are prohibited.
    CONCLUSION
    ¶30 We conclude that an “intersecting highway” under the
    Utah Outdoor Advertising Act is a primary highway that
    (…continued)
    Federal Highway Admin., U.S. Dep’t of Transp., National
    Highway System, https://hepgis.fhwa.dot.gov/fhwagis/.
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    2018 UT App 207
    Evans v. UDOT
    directly intersects the relevant interstate interchange, and that
    the district court erred in its conclusion that there is an
    intersecting highway within 2,640 feet of the pavement widening
    at Exit 257. We therefore reverse its decision to uphold UDOT’s
    denial of Evans’s applications and remand with instructions that
    UDOT grant the applications.
    20160994-CA                   15               
    2018 UT App 207