Billboard bill another sign of disdain for municipal decisions.
Two things are troubling about Onslow Republican Sen. Harry Brown’s proposed Senate Bill 183, purporting to establish standards for “selective vegetation removal” and erection of outdoor advertising.
It does a few other selective things, too, such as allowing private interests to remove roadside trees and bushes that might impede the view, and undermining the ability of local governments to slow down the proliferation of electronic billboards.
It’s another sign, if you’ll pardon a bad pun, that the 2011 General Assembly takes a dim view of local decision-making by duly elected and appointed members of city councils. The legislature is moving toward reversing municipal annexations in Kinston and Lexington, an intrusive action that goes beyond preaching and gets into serious meddling. For a legislature controlled by Republicans for the first time in more than a century, many members show a remarkable affinity for a powerful central government rejecting orderly decision-making by local officials.
But it’s not only Republicans who support bills making it easier to erect electronic billboards. A co-sponsor of the bill is Sen. Clark Jenkins, D-Edgecombe. And don’t forget: It was then-Sen. and now Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, a Democrat who presides over the Senate, who sponsored legislation several years ago limiting local governments longtime ability to ban billboards by requiring them to reimburse billboard owners if they did so and if they didn’t already have billboard control ordinances. Previously, billboard owners were allowed a number of years to keep the signs up and earning before they had to be removed.
Opponents of the bill point out several troubling provisions. The bill would allow electronic billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of interstate and primary highways. It would allow billboard owners to convert existing signs to digital billboards that can convey more images. It would increase the zone in which billboard interests could cut vegetation from 250 feet to 400 feet. And it prohibits local governments from regulating the trimming of trees and plants on interstate or primary highway rights of way.
As we noted when the Federal Highway Administration began allowing electronic billboards that flash several messages a minute, safety experts have warned that it’s unsafe for drivers to be distracted for more than two seconds at a time. Billboards with messages that can change every eight seconds or so will surely distract some drivers in adverse ways. It also seems at odds with the federal Highway Beautification Act, which discourages signs with flashing lights.
We knew the federal government’s approval of changeable digital billboards meant they soon would proliferate in North Carolina. With Sen. Brown’s bill allowing conversion of regular billboards, legislators should think twice about the messages they are sending. The one about highway safety is about to get run over.
Posted: Tuesday, Mar. 08, 2011
