Bravo to Charlotte, the city of trees, for fighting to keep hundreds of trees from being whacked just to better show off billboards. City arborist Don McSween and other city leaders understand the importance of the tree canopy to our city’s beauty, and so on Friday contested 16 of Adams Outdoor Advertising’s 21 applications to fire up the chainsaws.
The legislature targeted trees last year, deciding that 250 feet of clear space (nearly a football field’s length) in front of billboards wasn’t enough. Now, the city argues that most of Adams’ proposals violate N.C. Department of Transportation rules. The billboards in question violate other city rules, for example, or target trees that hide views of junkyards or trees that are protected because they were planted as a noise barrier.
The real question, though, is why McSween is having to wage this fight at all. There has been much hand-wringing over the fact that a new state law doesn’t give local governments authority to enforce their own ordinances. Overlooked in that debate, though, is that the law doesn’t explicitly come down one way or the other on that question. DOT officials, not state law, made the rule neutering the locals.
The DOT should change that rule, and legislators should amend the law when they return in May.
(Charlotte Observer)
Posted: Friday, Mar. 30, 2012
