YES: Georgia House Bill 179 balances the environment with business rights.
By Jon Burns
For years, my colleagues in the General Assembly have struggled to strike a balance between protecting the scenic beauty of our state with creating and sustaining economic activity through allowing Georgia companies to use appropriate outdoor advertising to grow their businesses and protect existing jobs.
No matter which side of the debate you fall, one fact is clear — current law does little to help achieve either goal.
Current law has proven ineffective in allowing billboards to be seen low to the ground as the obstructing trees block the view of billboards in many cases. The results are that billboards often are left abandoned behind trees as worthless investments or raised to skyscraper height just so they can be seen above the tree line. This result is not appealing aesthetically, nor does it help our community businesses.
Last year, I took on the challenge of finding a compromise between business leaders seeking to promote Georgia businesses and those concerned with protecting roadside aesthetics. While both sides learned a great deal, no agreement could be forged.
During the interim, my constituents asked me to do what I could to help promote Georgia’s economy and get Georgians back to work. And I realized that Georgia’s network of outdoor advertising can be an incredible resource to help us market our community businesses, grow new jobs, and maintain our existing workforce, but only if the messages were visible to the traveling public.
We worked hard over the past few months and fashioned a reasonable bill that achieves many of the goals sought after by both sides of this debate. Unfortunately, many e-mail chains and much of the media coverage of the issue have ignored the aesthetic benefits this bill would provide.
In exchange for the ability to be seen in a modest viewing area, any trees removed would have to be replaced. Additionally, removal can only occur if signs are lowered to no higher than 75 feet.
In addition, outdoor advertising companies have agreed to the following concessions:
● Operators will pay the highest fees in the nation to be seen across the state right of way.
● New obscenity standards will be adopted.
● DOT administrative expenses will be funded at no cost to Georgia taxpayers.
● Heavy mitigation fees will fund community planting projects around our state.
● Restrictions apply to new billboards through anti-proliferation measures.
● Local officials will determine where or if billboards can exist in a community.
Current law has no provisions to remove dilapidated, cluttered, or abandoned billboards; no provisions to include obscenity standards on static boards; no provisions to lower skyscraper billboards; and shuns community businesses that rely on this form of messaging to keep their doors open. HB 179 addresses all of these issues.
Billboards will exist in Georgia regardless of whether or not this bill passes. The question to consider is simple: Is our proposed program better than our current law? From both an economic and scenic perspective, the answer is undoubtedly yes.
State Rep. Jon Burns, R-Newington, is the sponsor of HB 179.
NO: The bill kills local tree plantings and perpetuates ‘skyscraper’ billboards.
By Eva Galambos and John J. Fretti
The billboard industry has a problem, but it isn’t the roadside trees belonging to the people of Georgia. It would have you believe drivers on Georgia’s highways cannot see the forest of over 9,000 billboards for the trees. Is that the problem? No. Georgia DOT already administers a permit system allowing billboard companies exclusive rights to cut trees for the sole purpose of billboard visibility. “Rent This Sign” and vacant boards are a symptom of a too-many-billboard problem, not a tree problem.
The billboard industry’s lobbyists run a skillful, well-financed campaign. House Bill 179’s sponsors boast the false logic that clear cutting public trees will create jobs. This is not a jobs bill. This is a billboard bill. This bill turns our public rights-of-way over to the billboard industry. State Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, saw the reality of HB 179 and stated:
“This bill crosses the line from what people can rightfully do on private property to what private individuals can demand happen on public property.”
Say goodbye to local tree plantings, streetscape and beautification projects. HB 179 prohibits planting trees across the state — by counties, cities, civic organizations, the Georgia DOT and the federal government — that might one day obscure a billboard. The provision reads: “No beautification project ... shall include the planting of trees in the right of way within 500 feet of an outdoor advertising sign such that the visibility of a permitted outdoor advertising sign is obscured ... by the growth of such vegetation.”
The billboard industry shouldn’t have priority over community interests in our public rights-of-way. That’s not local control. That’s no control, and that’s a problem.
Years ago, the billboard industry persuaded Georgia DOT to lift a statewide height restriction on billboards. In response, the industry built skyscraper billboards you see high above our highways. HB 179 doesn’t fix this problem. HB 179 only requires signs to be lowered once nearby trees have been clear cut. Even then, some signs are exempt. That means billboard owners can keep their skyscraper signs just as they are. Worse still, the bill does not prohibit new skyscraper signs.
HB 179 burdens DOT with responsibility for developing and administering a credit market for the billboard industry that will allow more tree cutting for less money. Under the proposed program, billboard owners get monetary “credits” for taking down abandoned billboards on private property. They then cash those credits toward the money due to the state for the economic value of trees removed from public rights-of-way. The billboard industry claims this provision will enhance Georgia’s scenic beauty. In reality, this provision is like the State Patrol compensating a speeder for paying his ticket; what it will enhance is the billboard industry.
Proponents claim the bill addresses obscene messages on billboards. In reality, the bill’s language is no stronger than current law, and it will do nothing to prevent “We Bare All” and “Oriental Massage” messages splashed along our roads.
If HB 179 is passed by the Senate and signed by Gov. Nathan Deal, Georgia will take a step backward. Current law is more than adequate. Easier and cheaper clear cutting of trees on the public rights-of-way will not advance the state’s economic interests. HB 179 is a problem for Georgia, its roadways and communities and should never become law.
Eva Galambos is mayor of Sandy Springs.
John J. Fretti is mayor of Valdosta.
Contributing: Roswell Mayor Jere Wood.
