Currently the North Carolina Legislature is moving ahead with legislation being pushed hard by the Outdoor Advertising industry (House Bill 309 and Senate Bill 183). The liberalization of existing rules would greatly increase the amount of vegetation and trees that could be cut away around billboards. It’s hard to offer any reasonable justification for the legislation since much of our highway greenery will be the victim. Changes to billboard spacing are also proposed.
In most cases permits would be issued by the DOT allowing them to be much closer together. For the citizen driving along our once green highways there may be a nearly continuous parade of billboard pollution. What I’ve seen appearing on billboards on my business travels around the state the last several weeks is hardly necessary or important. I came across billboards for most brands of beer, for Cancer Cure centers, for low interest auto loans, chewing tobacco and, of course about a dozen for the JR Cigarette Outlet. These are surely not aids to travelers that the sponsors of the legislation advocate but just distracting highway pollution.
One of the most controversial provisions is to eliminate any control towns, cities and counties have to deny a permit. If the legislation is passed “local governments are prohibited from regulating vegetation cutting, trimming, pruning on state and interstate highways” that run through their jurisdiction. They have always had this enforcement tool in the past. This change means there are few measures left for the control of clear cutting. The very powerful outdoor advertising industry looks like it will get its way as the legislation (Edition IV) is moving quickly through the House and Senate in Raleigh.
The simplistic justification the sponsors of the legislation give us is that it will create jobs. This is hardly the case. Keep in mind most new billboard installations are completed from start to finish in two weeks. The “aids to tourists” argument is also nonsensical. If out of state tourists come for a North Carolina vacation it is because of the beauty of our countryside, the rolling meadows, the majestic mountain vistas and the highway greenery. ‘
The bill intends to add to our lean state treasury as permit fees double from $200 to $400. This sounds good until the details are inspected. The burden to be placed on the DOT in the normal permit review and sign placement process will likely be a multiple of the fees collected from the billboard owner. So who will benefit from the new laws? It will be almost entirely the handful of billboard companies that monopolize North Carolina’s outdoor advertising.
The legislature is getting hoodwinked in several directions. First the name of the bill euphemistically calls the bill “Statuary Legislation for Selective Vegetation Removal.” This benign title ignores the portions of the bill that strip away local powers for billboard control and decimate reasonable billboard spacing standards. What are they (our legislators) thinking!
What should be proposed is the elimination of (over time) billboards. At present even the Federal Highway Administration has proposed an elimination program that fairly treats the billboard owners via a process of investment amortization as a way to get them gone. North Carolina needs sunset laws on our billboards.
Is anyone also noticing how now billboards are being stacked one on top of another? Have our legislators noticed how the size and (colossal) height of billboards has increased? Four states have now banned billboards entirely and so have over a hundred cities such as San Diego, Houston, Little Rock, Jacksonville and Mobile.
This is bad legislation. Our roadside beauty is being compromised for no good purpose. Ask your N.C. senators and representatives to review the pros versus the cons.
Benson lives in Mathews.He has owned and operated businesses in several areas of North Carolina since 1980. Currently he is chairman of Morningstar Properties of Matthews, a North Carolina-based self-storage and marina company.
June 02, 2011 7:20 PM
