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BILLBOARDS: Editorials of Interest Billboard Blight Scars Alachua County
There is nothing particularly radical or revolutionary about last week's county plan board recommendation for a ban on off-site signs — billboards, in other words. In the last decade, some 500 local governments have taken action to rid their borders of unsightly visual blight. FromThe Gainesville Sun, Mar, 11, 1994. The Billboard Industry's Friends
What's so curious about their argument, though, is not that it is a thinly disguised attempt to destroy billboard ordinances throughout Florida without ever having to confront their visual pollution. The curious thing is that the fairness argument fails on its own merits. From The St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 5, 1991 Billboards - Lobby Steamrolls Public
Of all the bad special interest bills ... to undo local billboard control ordinances [this] is one of the most insulting. ... [T]his long struggle began two years ago in Jacksonville, where visitors would agree with the local newspaper's description of the city as a "sprawling billboard jungle." From The Tallahassee Democrat, May 26, 1989 Bills Could Halt Billboard Banning
When the Clearwater City Commission voted Jan. 21 to phase out billboards along one of the city's most commercialized strips, Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, there wasn't a peep of protest from billboard companies. Everyone wondered why. From The St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 10, 1989 A Blighted Bill
It has become an annual winter rite — trying to discover how and where the billboard industry will try to slip through favorable legislation in the Florida Legislature. From The St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 3, 1994 Buying Billboards, and Lawmakers
The outdoor advertising industry has had doors slammed in its face all over Florida ... But in those hallowed halls in Tallahassee where our state legislators work, the billboard industry has found the doors wide open and the red carpet rolled out. From The St. Petersburg Times, May 22, 1989 Caution: Blight Ahead
[A] House transportation bill has two industry amendments [that would] make it virtually impossible for cities, counties, or the state itself to combat the visual blight along Florida roads. A scenic byway? Forget it, unless you considered ad kitsch scenic. From The Miami Herald, Mar. 21, 1994 Checking the Burgeoning Billboards
Florida has more billboards on its major highways than any state in the Union, upwards of 20,000. The state’s orgy of billboards, promoting everything from strip joints to cigarettes, emphasizes the failure of the Highway Beautification Act. From The Tampa Tribune, Aug. 31, 1998 Developers' Party
That Rep. Fred Jones would play accommodating host to real-estate developers should come as no surprise ... What is more disgusting, and even puzzling, though, is the extent to which his House colleagues Tuesday wanted a piece of the action. From The St. Petersburg Times, May 17, 1990 Dump the Hitchhikers
Despite an outcry from environmentalists and others fighting to keep giant signs under control along Florida's roadway, committees in the Florida House and Senate are smoothing the path for two bills that make concessions to the billboard industry. From The St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 16, 1994 An Egregious Billboard Amendment
It almost never fails. Whenever the Florida Legislature is in session, the powerful billboard industry attempts to sabotage sign restrictions. This year the industry has pushed an amendment that would pre-empt local sign ordinances. From The Tampa Tribune, Mar. 18, 1999 Enforce Billboard Ordinance
Creating an attractive place for people to live and work should not depend on partisan ideology. Instead, good, old-fashioned common sense should drive the decision-making process. From The Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 29, 1998 Florida's Billboard Bonanza
Up in Tallahassee they have yearly debates over the Future of Billboards. This year the billboard people are asking for the right to cash and a jury trial before we take any down... Sure they have sponsors. In Tallahassee you can always find a legislator who needs campaigning cash ... From The St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 31, 1991 For Home Rule
Here comes another state legislator with another mandate on local governments. And this one, if enacted, would make it virtually impossible for cities and towns to impose new standards for billboards and signs. From The Gainesville Sun, Apr. 3, 1989 For Sale: Billboard Bill
Sure enough, billboard lobbyists get what they pay for: Under the patronage of House Speaker Tom Gustafson, Rep. Robert DeWitt Trammell's bill prohibiting billboard amortization is zipping through the House. Its companion, by Sen. John Grant, awaits a call for a vote in the Senate. From The Miami Herald, Jun. 1, 1989 Giving Up on Billboards
Sound cynical? Well, let's consider the implication of what these legislators are supporting: Local governments would have to pay billboard companies millions of dollars to tear down billboards that don't comply with new size restrictions or zoning along local roads. From The Orlando Sentinal, May 13, 1989 Glimmer of Hope for the Car-Bound
State legislators should put some much-needed muscle into the state's sign laws when lawmakers reconvene in January. Otherwise, Florida's deserved reputation as the capital of kitsch will continue to grow. From The Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 1, 1998 Image is Everything
The war against billboard blight is far from over in Orange County. But some International Drive merchants triumphantly claimed victory recently in their battle to clean up a portion of the seedy tourist strip where they do business. From The Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 26, 1998 Keep Greeneway Clean
If nitwits ruled, nothing would be sacred. It would mean the end of orderliness, civil behavior and standards that we've come to accept as important for a high quality of life. From The Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 26, 1998 A Last Hurrah?
Two of the session's worst bills sailed out of the same House committee ... One would make cities and counties pay condemnation prices for any billboards they try to take down. From The St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 28, 1991 Lawmakers Should Reject Disastrous Billboard Proposal
Each year, a few pieces of legislation seem to spring from nowhere and race through the Tallahassee maze with lightning speed. ... [T]hey clear the hurdles that trip up so many bills only because promises have been made, deals secretly cut, and agendas carefully set. From The Tampa Tribune, May 9, 1989 Legislative Lickspittles Bow before Arrogant Sign Lobbyists
Even by Tallahassee's limp standards, the House Judiciary Committee's sellout to the billboard industry is outrageously craven. The panel Tuesday voted 11-4 for a bill that would gut every billboard ordinance in the state. Among those who voted to pick the public's pocket for the sake of the billboard industry: Rep. Chuck Smith of Brooksville. From The Tampa Tribune, Mar. 28, 1991 Legislators Need to Heed Signs and Reject Billboard Reimbursement
The billboard companies were given about five years to recoup the money that they had invested in their signs before they had to be removed. Since then, the billboard industry has been trying to make an end run around the will of the people by getting the Legislature to in effect undo what the voters of Jacksonville did. From The Florida Times-Union, Mar. 28, 1991 Pete Dunbar's Odd Flip-Flop on Signs
Pete Dunbar ... is said to have crafted the legislation that would prohibit communities from ordering signs removed unless the industry were paid off in cash for each sign. Most local governments compensate sign owners through amortization. From The Tampa Tribune, Apr. 8, 1991 A Preposterous Proposal to Preserve Giant Billboards
Their not-so-innocent proposed amendment to Florida law would make it prohibitively expensive for cities and counties to remove towering, unsightly billboards along Florida's streets and roads. Their effort heads off a movement by numerous local governments that have had their fill of billboard proliferation. From The Tampa Tribune, Apr. 15, 1989 Pro-Billboard Amendment a Sign of Senators' Priority
State senators abetting an industry scheme are crafting legislation that would stamp out local billboard regulations. The Senate Community Affairs Committee Monday approved an amendment to the Growth Management Act... Who voted for this outrage? Senators Carrie Meek of Miami, Karen Thurman of Inverness, Gwen Margolis of North Miami Beach, and George Kirkpatrick of Gainesville. Remember their names. From The Tampa Tribune, May 17, 1990 Putting the Billboard Lobby First
Floridians are tired of the visual blight created by billboards. But apparently some of their elected representatives have greater loyalty to industry lobbyists than they do to the people who put them in office. From The St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 26, 1991 Sabotaging Controls on Billboards
Every session of the Florida Legislature, it happens. The powerful billboard industry attempts to gut reasonable sign restraints. This year, the industry is at it again. ...[In] a transportation bill devoted mostly to internal improvements at the [FDOT]... Rep. Robert Trammell, a Marianna Democrat and billboard proponent, introduced language designed to handcuff sign regulations. From The Tampa Tribune, Mar. 5, 1994 Sign Law Should Stand
Another bill before the Legislature threatens the intent of Jacksonville’s 2-year-old sign ordinance. This bill would heap a preposterous financial burden on municipalities that remove billboards along their streets and roads. From The Jacksonville Business Journal, May 15, 1989 Sign Off
On its no more than so-many-square-foot surface, it seems like a boring issue — the regulation of the size, height and placement of signs. But it’s setting up to be a fight before Alachua County commissioners. From The Gainesville Sun, Apr. 3, 1989 Tacky or Tasteful
What is it about billboards that so appeals to some elected officials in the city of Orlando? City commissioners had a golden opportunity this week to keep billboard companies from putting up new signs while the city weighs the pros and cons of continuing to allow the construction of additional billboards. Why would anyone object to that? From The Orlando Sentinel, Sep. 4, 1998 Undercutting Billboard Regulations
Trammell ... who backs the measure, purports to have noble motives: "Taking property without compensation is not the American way." Come one, Trammell, stop the baloney. Because the billboards may cost as much as $40,000, most local governments compensate sign owners through amortization. They allow billboards that do not comply with local sign laws to remain in place until the company realizes a fair return on its investment. From The Tampa Tribune, Mar. 22, 1991 Wasting Tax Money on Billboards
As the Green Scissors Report points out, the provision [of the Highway Beautification Act] turns the usual "polluter pays" principle on its head. Here, taxpayers must enrich the polluters before they will stop visually contaminating the countryside. From The Tampa Tribune, Feb. 28, 1998
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