Flashing billboards may again be allowed – Arizona Daily Star

Digital billboards, which have exploded in numbers and controversy nationally, may soon be permitted once again in Arizona if a new bill passes the Legislature.

The bill would allow electronic billboards to flash changing messages on state and federal highways every eight seconds.

It would have no immediate effect in Tucson or unincorporated Pima County, where electronic billboards are banned by law and legal settlements. It would allow them in Marana, Sahuarita and Oro Valley if their governments approved.

Opponents call such billboards visual blight, driver safety hazards and threats to Arizona’s dark skies, the latter because they beam upward. Supporters say they will emit less light than a conventional billboard, and that nationally they display safety warnings, news headlines and election returns as well as advertising.

This bill’s trigger point was a state Court of Appeals ruling last November overturning approval of a digital billboard by the city of Phoenix, where 53 digital billboards exist. The court ruled the digital sign violates the Arizona Highway Beautification Act because the act doesn’t authorize digital billboards.

Longtime anti-billboard activist Mark Mayer of Tucson calls this bill an end-run around that ruling. Supporters say it will bring the law in line with the ruling.

“It’s actually pretty basic. It follows the judge’s decision, which laid out how the law needs to be fixed. It conforms with 41 other state laws out there,” said lead sponsor Rep. Bob Robson, a Chandler Republican. “It doesn’t change any local criteria for permitting billboards. If you want to change the local law and it’s not permitted right now, you have to go through the process.”

But Rep. Bruce Wheeler, a Tucson Democrat, said digital billboards are distracting and potentially hazardous. He said he is opposing the bill after first mistakenly signing on as one of 24 co-sponsors at the behest of an industry lobbyist. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, has also recanted his sponsorship, saying, like Wheeler, that he didn’t fully understand the bill at first.

Wheeler said “the flashing billboards – the nature of them changing messages all the time” is at the heart of his objection. He fought for billboard regulations as a Tucson city councilman in the 1980s and ’90s. “We have some up here along I-10, and they change maybe twice a minute. One minute it’s a Dodge commercial and 15 or 20 seconds later it could be an American Airlines message. They’re also unsightly, a violation of the whole principle of aesthetics.”

Pima County has no digital billboards. Seventy exist statewide, all approved in accord with previous state and federal guidelines, said Clear Channel Outdoors, a billboard company supporting this bill. Nationally, about 3,200 such billboards exist, far more than a decade ago, says the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, a national industry trade group.

In a statement, Clear Channel said these billboards’ benefits have been widely recognized, and are used regularly by the FBI, Silent Witness, Amber Alert and others in law enforcement to capture criminals and warn the public of emergencies.

The company and state Sen. Linda Lopez, a Tucson Democrat who supports the bill, note that the Federal Highway Administration issued what’s known as a legal “guidance” saying states could authorize digital billboards under certain conditions but can also regulate spacing, intervals between message changes, lighting and malfunctions.

“I’m getting emails saying that this will cause a proliferation of billboards – not at all,” Lopez said. “Locally, you have to go through the same approval process that exists right now.”

But Mayer, a board member of the group Scenic Arizona, said he’s concerned billboard companies will take advantage of the proposed law if it passes to pressure local governments to relax their policies.

“We have this one protection from the Highway Beautification Act that really matters now,” Mayer said.

On the safety issue, industry studies found digital billboards are “safety-neutral,” said Clear Channel, finding no statistically significant relationship between accidents and digital billboards. The studies examined 160,000 records of accidents near 69 digital billboards, the company said.

“I drive past quite a few of them on a regular basis. They’re not hazardous from my standpoint,” bill sponsor Robson said. “Anything is a distraction in today’s environment.”

But organizations including the National Academy of Sciences looked at studies financed by governments, highway-safety groups and insurance companies. Those studies found that roadside signs such as digital billboards contribute to driver distraction “at levels that adversely affect safe driving performance.”

If you go

• What: Hearing on HB 2757, the digital billboard bill, before the House Government Committee.

• When: Meeting starts 2 p.m. Tuesday, and numerous other bills are on the agenda.

• Where: House Hearing Room 4, State House Building, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix.