No commercial enterprises or activities shall be conducted by the commissioner or any other agency of the State within or on the property acquired for or in connection with a limited access highway, as defined in this act, nor shall such commercial enterprises or activities be authorized except as hereinafter provided but nothing herein shall prevent the operation, in the manner provided by law, of autobuses within or on the property used for or designated as a limited access highway as defined in this act.

The commissioner, in order to permit the establishment of adequate fuel or other service facilities by private owners or their lessees, for the users of a limited access highway, may acquire suitable areas for such facilities even though such areas are not needed for the right-of-way proper and, in the manner hereinafter provided, shall sell or lease as lessor such portions thereof as in his judgment the public interest shall then require. Such sales and leases shall be made under the following terms and conditions:

a. Each purchaser and lessee shall be a person who has been continuously a resident of this State for a period of at least two years immediately preceding such sale.

b. Subject to the conditions and restrictions imposed by this act, the premises shall be sold or leased at public sale to the highest responsible bidder.

c. The commissioner shall have the right to incorporate in any deed conveying premises so sold covenants running with the land requiring the purchasers, their grantees, and successors (1) to erect and maintain any buildings thereon in conformity with specified exterior design, (2) to provide services reasonably required by the users of the limited access highway subject to usual sanitary and health standards, and (3) to conduct no business other than that for which the property was originally sold, without the written consent of the commissioner.

d. Such premises shall not be sold or leased to a person who owns, directly or indirectly, or holds under lease any premises in the same service area on the same side of a limited access highway purchased or leased for a similar purpose.

e. In acquiring areas for the purposes aforesaid and in subdividing such areas into smaller premises for sale to the purchasers thereof, the commissioner shall provide a sufficient number of separate premises to encourage free and open competition among all suppliers of each service involved who desire to purchase or lease premises for the furnishing of such services along each limited access highway, subject to any restrictions hereinabove stated.

f. The commissioner shall provide access roads from the limited access highway to the service areas, the location of which shall be indicated to users of the limited access highway by appropriate signs, the style, size, and specifications of which shall be determined by the commissioner.

g. Each purchaser or lessee of such premises may arrange to have the services for which such premises were sold or leased performed through lessees or sublessees or other third persons; provided that such purchasers or lessees shall remain liable for failure to comply with the covenants contained in the deed affecting such premises.

For the purpose of this section, “person” shall include any individual and those related to him by blood, marriage or adoption, and partnerships and corporations and all individuals affiliated therewith through ownership or control, directly or indirectly, of more than fifty per centum (50%) of any outstanding corporate stock.

L. 1945, c. 83, s. 8; amended 1948,c.461,s.5, 1989, c. 32, s. 20.