Cutting state-owned trees for billboards moves ahead

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By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Outdoor advertisers are a step closer to firing up their chain saws to cut trees on public rights of way after legislation passed the state Senate 37-19 with one amendment.

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The Georgia Senate has voted in favor of letting billboard owners clear cut trees on state property in front of billboards.

Johnny Crawford, Jcrawford@ajc.com The Georgia Senate has voted in favor of letting billboard owners clear cut trees on state property in front of billboards.

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The proposed change, which would allow billboard owners to clear-cut trees in front of their signs, now has to go back to the House, where it originated, for more political tuning before it becomes law.

House members can accept the amendment by Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, which calls for fines of $5,000 to $10,000 for billboards found to be obscene, or the House can try to get the Senate to back off the amendment, or it can appoint a conference committee to work out differences (both chambers would have to approve the results).

The bill is the latest battle in a war that has lasted for more than a decade between the billboard industry and advocates of public space and beautified highways. Groups such as the Garden Club of Georgia have opposed cutting trees on road rights of way and have successfully sued the state to prevent it from giving permission to cut.

Jill Johnson, a lobbyist for Trees Columbus, said the group was unhappy the bill passed and was hoping legislators will make more changes, such as exempting trees planted as part of beautification projects from cutting.

"We are talking to House members about our concerns about [House Bill 179]," she said.

Connor Poe, executive director of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia, said his group was content with the bill and believed it could work with Unterman's amendment, which is aimed at billboards such as those that line I-75 toward Florida.

Unterman brought in pictures of the signs, which advertise massage parlors, sex shops and strip clubs and left Georgia with the reputation as "the bare all state," she said.

Poe said the association would support stricter obscenity laws.

"We want to be seen as good community partners," he said.