Section 306D.1. Statement of purpose — intent.
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1. The general assembly finds that:
a. The state offers numerous regions through which people can drive for the pleasure of viewing unusually scenic and interesting landscapes; however, routes to and through these areas have not been adequately identified for Iowans and state visitors.
b. Among those things that attract motorists to the state’s landscape are agricultural lands, forests, river basins, distinctive landforms, interesting architecture, metropolitan areas, small rural towns, and historic sites.
c. The landscape qualities of unusually scenic routes throughout the state have not been protected from visual and resource deterioration particularly along routes which pass near the state’s nationally significant areas such as the bluffs of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the Amana colonies, the Herbert Hoover national historic site, federal reservoirs, communities surrounding the state’s natural lakes, the Des Moines river greenbelt, the great river road, and many others.
d. A principal goal of economic development in this state is to increase the influence which travel and tourism have on the state’s economic expansion.
e. Iowans and visitors should be encouraged to travel to and through unusually scenic areas of the state.
f. A program should be established, following a statewide plan, to identify and promote highways and secondary routes which pass through unusually scenic landscapes and to protect and enhance the scenic qualities of the landscape through which these routes pass.
2. In addition to other goals for the program, it is the intention of the general assembly that the scenic highways program be coordinated with the state’s open space program under chapter 465A.