Expect an ugly fight over the state's roadside scenery

During the legislative session that ended in May, a well-intentioned piece of legislation died violently in a collision of interests.
It was a collision of Texas notions of property rights and Texas notions of preservation of its natural splendor. For as big a tussle as it was, it occurred out of the public view. That's ironic considering a public view of the Texas countryside is really what it was all about.

It's not over yet either, because another skirmish is unfolding, and this time it's gone from the location of static billboards that beg a driver's attention to electronic ones that demand it.
The Texas Transportation Commission is to consider allowing outdoor advertisers to deploy LED (light emitting diode) billboards along interstate routes. In typical bureaucratic obfuscation, the sixth item on the agenda includes this illuminating item:
"Chapter 21 — Right of Way (MO) Amendments to §21.142, Definitions, §21.150, Permits, §21.154, Lighting and Movement of Signs, New §21.163, Electronic Signs (Regulation of Signs Along Interstate and Primary Highways), Amendments to §21.441, Permit for Erection of Off-Premise Sign, and §21.551, Prohibited Signs (Control of Signs Along Rural Roads)"
You wouldn't know from the agenda item just how big a deal this is, but it is big. This move has been in the works since March when a Texas Highway Department administrator asked his federal counterparts whether allowing LED signs violated existing federal-state agreements under the Highway Beautification Act — the one that traces its origins to Lady Bird Johnson. Well, yes, it would violate the existing pact, but the accord could be amended, the feds said.
It might take a a while to get all the sign-off needed before you see your first dancing billboard, but given that outdoor advertisers are patient with a lot at stake and never miss an opportunity to protect that stake.
Rising to challenge the LED billboards is the group Scenic Texas, which as the name implies, wants to preserve the state's scenery.
And that modest goal puts them at odds with outdoor advertisers who, like any other business, vigorously resist what they consider burdensome regulation.
In the session concluded in May, for example, a little bill that would have banned any more billboards on Texas 71, that scenic roadway between here and Brady to the west and here and Columbus to the east, met death by amendment in the Texas Legislature.
Introduced by state Sen. Kirk Watson, D- Austin, who modified the bill to assuage concerns by his colleagues, the bill died in the House when state Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, objected that the billboard ban amounted to a "taking." The U.S. Constitution prohibits government from confiscating property without due process. Haggerty argued that the ban would deprive property owners of the full use of their land.
Former state Rep. Terral Smith of Austin, who lobbies for Scenic Texas and other clients, replied quite logically that property rights, like other rights, are not absolute: "You don't determine property rights — you may divide them between people but no one is here to say we have absolute property rights or personal rights or anything else, you are here to decide contests between people when rights clash."
But there was no Jimmy Stewart moment for this Mr. Smith. The bill died anyway, as did one that would ban billboards advertising "gentleman's clubs."
Scenic Texas found the going tough this session, but Margaret Lloyd of Houston is optimistic about one day seeing passage of a scenic highway bill that would conserve Texas highway views.
As the experience last session shows, that's a ways in the future. And right now, Lloyd and her group are suiting up for the fight against those moving billboards.

Source: Arnold Garcia Jr., AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN