Legal

One Utah Senate Billboard Bill Fails. One Still Pending.

SB 144 which would limit the ability of municipalities to incentivize landowners to terminate billboard leases or refuse to renew billboard leases failed by in a senate vote on Monday.  Here’s the bill’s language. The bill’s sponsor Senator David Hinkins introduced the legislation to prevent attempts by municipalities from paying […]

Kentucky House Approves Billboard Legislation

Kentucky House Approves Billboard Legislation The Kentucky House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a revised billboard-control act, in response to a constitutional (free speech) challenge to the existing law. Insider provides a quick update: Federal courts have ruled against Kentucky’s billboard law because it distinguished between on-premise and off-premise signs. State […]

Lamar Sues Fayette County and City of Lexington Over Digital Billboards

The Lexington Herald Ledger is reporting that Lamar Advertising filed a federal lawsuit against the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on February 10th, over regulations that ban freestanding electronic billboards in the county. Lamar applied in September 2020 for permits […]

Los Angeles Considers New Billboard Rules

The City of Los Angeles has banned new billboards since 2002.  This week the Los Angeles Planning Department released a 110 page staff report recommending changes to the Los Angeles sign rules.  There will be a hearing on the proposed rules on February 25. The proposed rules would: Allow a […]

What the Senate Said About Amortization

Amortization – the ability of a state or municipality to require a billboard company to take down a billboard after a fixed period of time without compensation – rears its ugly head from time to time.  Wenatchee, Washington passed an amortization law last year.  Amortization was a hotly debated topic […]

Federal Appeals Court Says Kentucky’s Billboard Law Undermines Free Speech

A federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Kentucky’s billboard violates constitutional protection of free speech. Bottom line: the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals repeated its legal standard. That standard says regulations which distinguish between on-premise and off-premise signs are based on content, and, therefore, violate the […]

California Cannabis Billboard Update

By Richard Hamlin, Hamlin Cody California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control allowed cannabis advertising on interstate highways if at least fifteen miles from the state’s border.  In late November 2020, a judge in San Luis Obispo ruled that the regulation was illegal.  The court formally entered its judgment on January 11, […]

“I like billboards a lot”…What Senator Mikulski said about billboards

Wednesday we ran a post about the successful effort to defeat draconian anti-billboard legislation in the (federal) 1991 Highway Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. Our united industry convinced the US Senate to remove the anti-billboard provisions; the bipartisan vote was 60-39. Today we’re publishing excerpts from Senator Barbara Mikulski’s articulate support […]

Robert Campbell Recalls the 1991 Billboard Showdown in Congress

Thirty years ago, the US Senate defeated anti-billboard legislation 60–39. Robert Campbell, currently a Lamar Regional Manager based in Mobile, AL, was in Washington, DC, when that historic vote occurred. Billboard Insider asked Campbell to tell us what happened. We thought of Robert because he’s from Alabama, home of Senator […]

Rothfelder On Panhandling And Other Applications Of Reed vs Gilbert

Billboard Insider published an interesting article in its February 8th edition entitled Reed vs Gilbert and Panhandling? According to the article, the City Council of Spokane Valley, Washington is considering amendments to the City’s sign code to regulate panhandling (I suppose the politically correct term is actually “street solicitation,” but […]