University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 27, 1990
9
Proposal would eliminate billboards
By Chris Siron
Kansan staff writer
The 61 billboards along Interstate 70 on both sides of the Lawrence exit could be affected by legislation.
"I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall I'll never see a tree at all."
Ogden Nash's doggerel may be on the minds of federal legislators as they contemplate legislation that would ban new billboards along federal highways and permit removal of existing signs.
The Visual Pollution Control Act of 1990, introduced Tuesday in the U.S. Senate, would amend the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which established federal standards for billboards.
Supporters of the bill said the 1965 act's power was so limited that only the billboard industry supported it.
there are 94,000 billboards on federal and interstate highways across the country compared to 1.1 million in 1965, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey.
The Outdoor Advertising Association has branded the proposed legislation unconstitutional, saying it would violate the Fifth Amendment by allowing states to take billbreaks without compensating the owner.
Russell Ross, general manager of Don Rey Outdoor Advertising in Wichita, said the bill sounded illegal and immoral to him.
Any time you take something without paying for it, it's stealing," he said. "I can't believe the U.S. Constitution will stand for such a thing, but I'm no lawyer."
thing, but I am in love with Mike Horan, president of Environs, said he thought the bill was great.
"Advertising, to the extent we have it, makes me sick, and billboards are the most abusive kind," he said. "It just obstructs what would be an otherwise nice view."
otherwise nice. The proposed bill was written by Sen. John Chafee, R-I.L., and sponsored by Sens. Clalborne Pell, D-R.I. and Lloyd Bentse, D-Texas, among others.
among others.
It is not considered likely to pass this year. Chafee said.
The bill is moving through the Senate committee process and is awaiting executive comment from President Bush.
Sarah Belden, assistant to Senate
Minority Leader Bob Dole, said that Dole had not seen a copy of the bill yet and that it was too early to tell whether he would support it.
Mike Horek, environmental aide for Sen. Nancy Kasebaum, said Kasebaum wanted to study the bill further before taking a position on it.
Tim Roller, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kan., said Slattery was waiting to see what Bush would say about the bill before deciding whether to co-sponsor it in the House.
"Representative Slattery has always been environmental." Boller said. "He certainly is not advocating
cluttering up our highways."
Slattery wanted to be sure the legislation would not limit effective advertising that was good for the economy, Bolter said.
"He needs to be convinced we need it." he said.
sixty-one billboards dot a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 70 from 10 miles east of the East Lawrence exit to 10 miles west of it.
Bill Munson, administrator of the Kansas office of Outdoor Advertising Control, said regulations limited billboard spacing and size. No billboard in Kansas may exceed 1,200 square feet.
vs.
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