Sen. Deanna Ballard Wants to Unleash Digital Billboards in North Carolina

The billboard industry in North Carolina has tried at least three times in recent years to get massive new power to override local laws and local governments and put their massive signs pretty much anywhere they want to. They're trying again this year with simultaneous bills in NC House (H645) and Senate (S534), "Revisions to Outdoor Advertising."

The industry's revisions (and have no second thoughts about who wrote or dictated the language of this bill) will allow more tree cutting around billboards, force taxpayers to pay billboard companies more to remove existing signs for public works projects, and allow billboards to be relocated from one part of a community to another even if local ordinances prohibit them. Worst of all, the bill will unleash a new scourge, digital billboards, the garish lighted eyesores the industry wants to replace their old billboards with.

Talk about distracted driving.

Sen. Deanna Ballard of Watauga is a secondary sponsor of the Senate bill. You gotta ask yourself, on those occasions when Sen. Ballard is pushing some new law, what's in it for Franklin Graham? Dunno. Why is unleashing the billboard industry -- to override existing municipal laws -- of such burning interest to Deanna Ballard?

The Assault on NC Cities Continues

Senate Bill 112 (let's call it "The Up Yours, Cities and Workers" Act, since the title put on it by its Republican sponsors is a complete lie) is only the latest assault on the ability of cities to protect their residents from mega-development. This law will cripple local control in the following ways:

1. Billboard companies would be able to replace completely, or "update," their signs even in areas where a city has banned them. In other words, billboards may visually pollute in perpetuity. Just because the citizens of a North Carolina city want to limit such things means nothing to these big government conservatives.

2. Protest petitions, used by neighbors to a proposed development to slow down changes to their neighborhood, will be eliminated from zoning laws. Protest petitions have been standard practice in North Carolina cities since the 1920s. Under that law, if a high percentage of near neighbors to a proposed development sign a petition, their collective action forces a city council to muster a "super-majority" of votes to approve the rezoning. But under Senate Bill 112, developers will have a much easier time pushing through their plans, whatever they may be.

3. Senate Bill 112 will also make hearing officers for the Industrial Commission, men and women who decide whether a company is at fault when a worker is injured, subject to political hiring and firing. Currently, those hearing officers, who sit as judges and should be free of political pressure, are protected by the state's Personnel Act. But this Republican wrecking crew wants them "fireable" at will, especially when one of them rules against a big company that happens to be feeding the campaign coffers.

This piece of vandalism cleared the NC House yesterday and goes back to the Senate.

Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Clear-Cutting

Intercepted press release, relevant to the sudden, mandated clear-cutting of North Carolina roadsides to accommodate the very powerful billboard industry:

The Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic today filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court on behalf of the North Carolina non-profit group Scenic NC. The suit is a challenge to recently issued rules allowing billboard companies to clear cut trees on the state's roadways in order to increase the visibility of billboards. 

The lawsuit asks the court to set aside temporary rules issued earlier this year on the basis that the rules violate the state's Administrative Procedures Act (APA). "The public was deprived of the opportunity to speak on these rules, which changed mid-stream at the request of the industry," said Reyn Bowman, of Scenic NC. The APA requires that agencies must re-issue rules if they are substantially changed from what was sent to public hearing.

Despite the substantial public outcry against these rules and the critical impact they will have on communities statewide, there were no public hearings in parts of the state that will be most severely affected. "It is important that citizens have adequate opportunity to weigh in on these rules which will substantially and negatively impact the landscape and scenic beauty of this state," added Bowman. “A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling indicates that more than 80% of North Carolina voters surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances. 

The temporary rules as initially noticed by the state's Department of Transportation required the billboard companies to re-plant when more than 60% of the vegetation is cleared. In response to objections from the industry, the final rules removed that requirement. The temporary rules enacted in January do not require replanting even if all trees are cut down. 

The temporary rules are due to go into effect on March 1 to implement a controversial measure passed by the NC General Assembly this year. The NC Department of Transportation estimates that several hundred thousand trees could be destroyed, and that the value of the public’s sacrificed trees will be $12 million.

And, yes, we have Sen. Dan Soucek and Rep. Jonathan Jordan to thank for the coddling of the billboard industry ... along with the rest of the NC Senate & House Republican caucuses.

The Good Guys Win One

Well, partly anyway. Republican Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown has backed off his proposed legislation to override local ordinances and allow digital billboards every 1,500 feet on major state highways. He's dropped that entirely, but is keeping language in the bill which will allow the billboard industry greater latitude in cutting trees to allow a passing motorist, or a visitor from outer space, more time to read the small print.

The NC Senate Transportation Committee endorsed the new language yesterday, but not without some spectacular whining from Republican Sen. Don East, whose district used to include Watauga:

...East, R-Surry, complained that vegetation had obscured advertising he'd purchased some years ago on a billboard near Boone, within three or four weeks of its having gone up.

East said he responded by asking the billboard's owner for a partial refund. "I wasn't getting what I paid for there," he said.

The only remedy for such injustice, evidently, is a new state-wide law on clear-cutting the roadside.

Resistance to Digital Billboards

The Charlotte Observer finally shines a little light on the proposed bill to liberate digital billboards in NC, sponsored in the General Assembly by Republican used car dealer Sen. Harry Brown of Onslow County.

There are still a few environmentally friendly Republicans extant -- a very few -- and in Charlotte at least they're speaking up against allowing digital billboards every 1,500 feet. Mr. Brown's proposed law would also disable local governments from controlling signage on their highways or from regulating the cutting of trees.

Like Republicans who actually believe in evolution, these mildly "environmental" Republicans will likely be run out of the party by next Tuesday.

Bad Law Update

Not so fast on the "Billboard Encouragement Act of 2011" in the NC General Assembly.

Sen. Brown Wants to Unleash the NC Billboard Industry

North Carolina Republican Senator (and Majority Leader) Harry Brown of Onslow and Jones counties wants to let loose the billboard industry, particularly the makers and hawkers of digital advertizing, on every North Carolina interstate or "primary highway."

To achieve that end he's introduced very quietly Senate Bill 183. If passed, it would (among other things)...

1. Allow digital ("automatic changeable facing") and "tri-vision" billboards every 1,500 feet on both sides of every major highway in the state. Advertisements must stay fixed for only 8 seconds.

2. Allow by right the conversion of any existing regular billboards to digital billboards, even if they are locally "nonconforming." In other words, this is a state law which would over-rule local ordinances regulating billboards. An example of Tea-Party-style small government?

3. Increase the "cut zone" (the clear-cutting of trees) around any billboard from 250 feet to 400 feet while also (you got it!) over-ruling any local tree-cutting ordinances.

So far as we can find, no mainstream newspaper in North Carolina has taken any note of this very bad law. Though there is a "No on SB 183" Facebook group growing.

The Watauga County Commission banned any more billboards in Watauga County last night and put an end to speculation that existing, grandfathered signs could be converted to digital displays.

We're relieved and grateful.