Arkansas State Highway Commission v. Roark

Steele Hays, Justice.

This appeal presents an issue of first impression under the Arkansas Highway Beautification Act, Ark. Code Ann. §27-74-401 — 502(1987 and Cum. Supp. 1991). In part, the act provides that junkyards within a thousand feet of interstate, primary and designated highways be screened from the view of the traveling public unless they are in an area zoned for industrial use.

Appellee Benny Roark operates Big Ben’s Auto Salvage in Fordyce, consisting of some fifty acres adjacent to U.S. Highway 79. In May 1984 the Arkansas State Highway Commission (plaintiff/appellant) identified…