Issues

The issues we are concerned with include sign control (on-premise, billboards, electronic billboards), tree conservation, cell tower control, and place-sensitive highway design.

Issues and articles of interest...

• Billboard Regulation in Michigan: Navigating the line between free speech and aesthetic considerations
• The Two Second Rule: What Every Community Should Know (August 2009)
• Highway Billboard Limits in Danger?
• Fight Back Against Assault of the Billboards, by William G. Milliken (July 23, 2008)
• Letter from Scenic America President, Kevin FryB to the Senate Transportation Committee
• Sign Control: Billboard Legislation Finally Addresses Billboard Proliferation in Michigan
• Billboard Control in Your Community: Recommended Elements of a Sign Ordinance
• Electronic Billboard Explosion
• Electronic Billboards Begin to Add Their Bright Blight to the American Landscape
• Logo Signs and TODS: Proven Alternatives to Billboards
• Context-Sensitive Solutions
• Scenic Michigan Policy on Wind Driven Electric Power Plants

SCENIC MICHIGAN SIGN & LIGHTING WORKSHOP

Scenic Michigan offers Sign and Lighting Workshops to Communities

Interested citizens, planners, zoning administrators and elected officials can all benefit from Scenic Michigan’s two hour Workshop which focuses on drafting sign ordinances that maintain community character, safety issues around signs and lighting and best practices for preserving the night sky.

Billboards, first amendment issues, writing, defending and enforcing sign and lighting ordinances will be presented by experts on the subject. Other topics include public safety and appearance issues, ways to save energy and money with lighting and signs and why communities should care about signs and lighting. Sample signs and lighting ordinances will be distributed as well as pictures of good lighting fixtures.

Scenic Michigan Sign & Light Workshop Flyer

SCENIC MICHIGAN POLICY ON WIND DRIVEN ELECTRIC POWER PLANTS

Scenic Michigan (SM) enthusiastically supports the use of alternative energy sources to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This includes wind driven electric power plants, provided they are properly located, operated, and with provision for removal in the event of obsolescence.

SM believes some measure of local input and control of siting and operation is mandatory, perhaps through a model ordinance which could be used throughout Michigan. Given their potential impacts, SM does not believe installation of large, wind driven electric power plants should be permitted in Michigan as a matter of right by developers, electric utilities or units of government.

The factors which should be considered for each installation include:

• Impact of location of these tall structures (hundreds of feet high) in environmentally or visually sensitive areas
• Visual impact to residents and tourists
• Need for and appearance of facilities to connect to the electric grid such as a substation, security fencing, power lines and roads
• Blade and/or hub lighting to FAA requirements, especially flashing strobe lights
• Light flicker on neighbors due to sunlight reflected off blades
• Ice shedding potential
• Color of the units
• Proximity to migratory bird flyways and night flying birds and bats
• Noise
• Maintenance of the power plant site
• Economic viability, with and without tax credits
• Removal bond in the event of obsolescence