The Tennessee House Transportation Subcommittee on Infrastructure passed two bills to amend the State’s sign regulations.  Both bills are  designed to fix Tennessee’s sign regulations which were overturned by the Thomas v Bright court challenge. HB 1071 is legislation prepared by various stakeholders including the out of home advertising industry.   HB 2255  is legislation prepared by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.    The OAAA’s Kerry Yoakum testified in support of HB 1071.  Both bills were voted out of subcommittee to the House Transportation committee.  The state’s attorney general has said that both bills will satisfy the court objections raised to Tennessee’s sign rules.

Insider’s take:  Tennessee is pushing for a legislative fix for its sign rules with competing bills.  Looks like it will be a beauty contest in the House Transportation committee next week.  Will be interesting to see what version gets out of the Transportation committee.  Insider is concerned that the TDOT bill (HB 2255), which is more extensive, may be open to court challenge.  The TDOT bill has other flaws like the fact that it exempts commercial and non-commercial signs less than 50 square feet from regulation.  It potentially could lead to a profusion of 49 square foot burma shave style signs along Tennessee freeways.

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