Issues

Highway Billboard Limits in Danger?

Senate OK'd a blight on scenery, some say
BY DAWSON BELL, FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU, July 11, 2008

LANSING—Michigan environmental groups decried Thursday a proposed new set of regulations for highway billboards that they say would reverse limits set in the 1990s to preserve the state's scenic beauty.

The bill, approved this month in the state Senate and headed to the House, would among other things allow for the replacement of some outdated billboards and reduce the amount of space required between signs along freeways and other federal and state highways.

The Michigan Environmental Council and Scenic Michigan contend the legislation would reduce the distance between billboards from 1,000 feet apart to 500 or 300 depending on the type of highway. They say it would allow the upgrade of grandfathered billboards that don't comply with the existing laws so they could be bigger and electronically digitalized.

In addition, the groups claim, religious organizations and service clubs could erect an unlimited number of small billboards.

“It will gun the reforms we've worked so hard to achieve over the last 10 years,“ said MEC President Lana Pollack.

Not so, said supporters of the legislation.

Bill Jackson, manager of real estate and government affairs for Adams Outdoor Advertising, said the overall number of billboards would remain capped even if the legislation is enacted. He said the changes would allow sign companies to modernize existing billboards and exercise greater flexibility in siting.

State Sen. Jud Gilbert, R-Algonac, the legislation's primary sponsor, said he believes the bill would enhance the aesthetic appeal of Michigan highways because it would allow signs to be more concentrated in urban and commercial areas rather than rural, natural areas.

But the environmental groups insist the 1998 legislation enacting the current limits was intended to result, over time, in the disappearance of about 3,000 billboards that don't meet the spacing requirements.

Pollack said approval of the proposed changes would “confirm the impression out-of-state visitors have that we're backward ... that we don't appreciate our own natural landscapes.”

Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6604 or dbell@freepress.com.

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