Digital billboards could spread to South Florida Water Management District land – Sun Sentinel

New billboards could spread to public land in a money-making move by South Florida water managers.

Digital billboards, rotating commercial advertising with public service announcements, would start showing up alongside busy roads and canals, according to a proposal from the South Florida Water Management District.

Getting into the billboard business is a far cry from the district’s usual duties of guarding against flooding, leading Everglades restoration and protecting drinking water supplies from Orlando to the Keys.

But a change in state law this year opened the door to the state’s five water management districts wading into billboard advertising as a way to boost revenues. South Florida district officials estimate they could make about $ 5 million a year from billboards.

Questions remain about whether to proceed.

“I’m struggling with this fitting into our core mission,” district board Chairman Joe Collins said.

Yet, one year after absorbing a state-imposed 30 percent budget cut that resulted in more than $ 100 million in cutbacks that included 100 layoffs, district officials see LED billboards as worth exploring.

“What we are looking for is the best opportunities,” district Executive Director Melissa Meeker said. “If it doesn’t work for us, it doesn’t work.”

The national anti-billboard group Scenic America opposes the proliferation of digital billboards, calling them “TVs-on-a-stick” that distract drivers and mar landscapes.

“It’s a bad idea,” said William Pollak, who heads Scenic Miami. “Digital billboards are visual pollution … It’s not worth the trade-off.”

After slashing water district budgets last year, the Florida Legislature this year authorized the agencies to start installing signs to make “public service announcements” — along with some advertising money on the side.

Legislators also agreed to allow similar advertising deals on signs along state nature trails and other “greenways.”

The signs on water district lands are supposed to be paid for entirely with revenues from sponsor advertising. In addition to advertising, they would also display weather threat updates, Amber alerts and conservation messages.

The South Florida Water Management District owns more than 1 million acres, much of it used for conservation and water storage and treatment.

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