LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A newly minted Michigan law seeks
to somewhat limit the growth of digital billboards across the state, in
some cases requiring companies to trade in three unused permits to put
up one electronic outdoor sign along a highway.
The measure signed
Thursday by Gov. Rick Snyder also may reduce the number of existing
billboards by making sure new digital incarnations are farther apart
than regular billboards now have to be.
The governor’s signature —
which came a day after the bill cleared the Senate 21-14 and the House
104-6 — capped a two-year process to bring Michigan into compliance with
federal rules, but one that got tied up amid wrangling over other
issues.
"I don’t think many of us think we have a lack of
advertising outside," Rep. Bradford Jacobsen, an Oxford Republican and
sponsor of the legislation, said after it won final approval.
Michigan
has around 14,500 billboards and, under a 2007 moratorium, is capped at
issuing more permits overall. Fewer than 200 of the billboards are
digital and mostly are in larger metropolitan areas.
Electronic
billboards can be attractive to their owners because of the ability to
cycle in multiple messages a day instead of one static advertisement.
But the downside is cost, with Jacobsen estimating it is not unusual to
spend $500,000 to $750,000 to erect a digital billboard and power it
with electricity.
Some people believe digital billboards are more
distracting and too bright, making roads less safe. A recently released
federal study, however, found that electronic signs do not cause drivers
to glance at them much longer than regular billboards to the point of
posing a safety risk.
"The problem we ran into this time around
was with that limit, that cap, on the actual billboards and this whole
digital movement … within that framework how do they get to play?"
said Sen. Tom Casperson, an Escanaba Republican. "What do you get rid of
to be able to get the digital billboards?"
The law includes a
provision designed to help smaller operators by letting billboard
companies trade in up to eight "nonstandard" signs — generally those
erected more than 15 years ago but which are too close to other
billboards — for a digital billboard permit without the three-to-one
trade-in requirement. Owners of standard signs can instead put up a
digital sign as long as they pay $200 a year, at least double what is
charged for non-digital billboards.
The trade-in exception applies for just one year and will not apply in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties
in the Detroit area.
"That
was designed to help the little guy get off the ground with this," said
Casperson, who noted that some large companies have thousands of
billboards and permits to trade in while smaller ones could have a few
dozen. "We will accept digital billboards but there has to be parameters
around them."
The law regulates how bright the signs can be, how
they are lit and how often ads can be rotated. Digital billboards also
cannot be closer than 1,750 feet to each other, unless they were already
up before Snyder signed the law.
The governor said Michigan
risked losing up to $100 million, or 10 percent, of its federal highway
funding without acting. He said the update brings more "common sense" to
the state’s billboard regulations.
Under one change, sign owners
now only have to get a permit every five years to trim trees and shrubs
around their billboards instead of every year. The law also clarifies
the definition of digital billboards and aims to better define the
permitting process and what to do with "nonstandard" signs.
Though the law won overwhelming approval in the House, it had opposition in the Senate.
Republican
Sen. Patrick Colbeck of Wayne County’s Canton Township complained that
instead of just making changes to avoid a possible federal road funding
penalty, lawmakers went too far and discouraged small businesses from
getting into the market. He and other senators wanted to allow operators
to upgrade up to 50 signs to digital signs before reaching the
three-to-one trade-in requirement.
"I’m a big believer in, ‘Let’s keep it simple,’" Colbeck said. "I’m just sensitive to
fear-driven legislation."
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Online:
Public Act 2 of 2013: http://1.usa.gov/1be22mA
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