[Durham INC] Billboard (and water quality) bills

[Pat Carstensen]

As I mentioned at the meeting last night, the NC House is working on bills to prop up the billboard industry at taxpayer expense (H 579, H 580, H 173, H 578 and H 581), which collectively mean:


  *   •      More trees being cut down. The “maximum cutting zone” for removing vegetation around billboards would increase from 340 feet to 500 feet. In 2012, lawmakers expanded it from 250 feet, so this increase is nearly twice as big. The new laws come as Charlotte strives to increase its tree canopy coverage to 50 percent, through the work of Trees Charlotte and others. This would make that job considerably harder.
  *   •      Governments would have to pay billboard companies far more money to remove existing signs for a public works project. Under current law, the state has to pay for the value of the property and the sign. Under the new law, the state would have to pay the company for lost advertising revenue going years into the future. The N.C. League of Municipalities suggests the amount could be 10 times as much as is now required. The Sierra Club points to a similar change in Minnesota that forced the state to pay $750,000 for each billboard it removed, and even more for digital billboards.
  *   •      Rules would be loosened to allow companies to move their billboards from one part of town to another, including to areas where they are not currently allowed. At least one bill specifies that the state DOT shall not deny a billboard permit just because it violates local ordinances.
  *   •      Digital billboards could become much more commonplace. Lewis touts this as an effort to create a statewide emergency messaging system, though the president of the N.C. Outdoor Advertising Association emphasizes “digital billboards also provide local businesses the opportunity to change their advertising messages throughout the day in an incredibly cost effective manner.”

The explanation of the billboard bills is from: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article146043254.html#storylink=cpy

In addition, the Senate has passed S 434, Amend Environmental Laws 2, which would

  *   •      further roll back local governments’ ability to use riparian buffers to protect water quality;
  *   •      entirely eliminate riparian buffers for the Catawba River (5 years in the making),; and
  *   •      repeal the Outer Banks' plastic bag ban that protects endangered sea turtles
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