Rule change would allow electronic billboards

Cities, however, would retain final say, and electronic billboards would remain illegal on rural roads.

The Texas Transportation Commission on Thursday will consider rules that for the first time would allow billboards in Texas to have electronic, changeable advertising.
However, contrary to the worst fears of those who oppose the proliferation of billboards, the proposed regulations would allow such signs only in home-rule cities and the surrounding territories under city control, not on rural highways. Cities would retain the final say over whether such signs would be allowed in their jurisdictions.

And any such signs permitted by cities could not have movable images, such as the constantly scrolling messages on a huge sign advertising a business on Texas 71 between Austin and Bastrop. That sign, on the property of the business it advertises, is an "on-premise" sign and thus exempt from regulation by the Texas Department of Transportation.
Under the proposed rules, which won't come up for final approval until at least December, the electronic image on a billboard could not change more than once every eight seconds, and the switch to the next image would have to occur within two seconds.
"Movement is the thing we want to prohibit," said John Campbell, the state Transportation Department's right of way division director. "Movement is the bigger safety concern than anything else. You want to minimize that distractive effect."
Despite the limitations of the proposed rule change, Margaret Lloyd, policy director for Scenic Texas, said her organization will oppose it.
"We think this is very premature," Lloyd said Monday. "The jury's still out on safety; the jury's still out on cost; the jury's still out on public will."
Lloyd contends that the Federal Highway Administration, in a 2006 exchange of letters with the state Transportation Department, said that electronic billboards were not legal under a 1972 contract between the federal agency and the state.
Campbell said that is not the department's interpretation of the agreement, made under the auspices of the 1965 Highway Beautification Act
"At this time, I don't think it's going to require a change in our federal agreement," Campbell said.
So why make the rule change? "I would say this is a recognition that this is what is going to occur in the industry," Campbell said.
Some years ago, after billboard companies installed a handful of signs that change images mechanically with rotating panels, Austin passed an ordinance saying that no billboard can be altered to a rotating or electronic sign, said Jessica King, a principal planner in the city's zoning review department. The rules are different for on-premise signs, and electronic messages are in use across the city.
The transportation commission's vote Thursday would initiate a 90-day public comment period on the rules, which would include a public hearing Nov. 28. A final vote could not occur until after the public comment period ends in December.

Source: By Ben Wear -AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, August 21, 2007