GROUP HOPES TO PUT AN END TO NEW BILLBOARDS; SAVE OUR SCENERY PANEL PETITIONS FOR VOTE IN NOVEMBER

New billboards would be banned in Missouri under an initiative petition measure that could be on the November ballot.

The Columbia-based Save Our Scenery Committee has collected more than 130,000 petition signatures. The organization plans to submit the petitions to the secretary of state's office in Jefferson City next Tuesday.

A minimum of 72,000 valid signatures is needed to get the issue on the November ballot, said Karl Kruse, Save Our Scenery campaign director.

The same group unsuccessfully sought to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 1998 to regulate billboards. This time the group's measure would change state law.

During a stop in Cape Girardeau Monday, Kruse said he is confident the measure will be on the November ballot.

The billboard measure is expected to be the first initiative petition to be submitted to the secretary of state's office for the November election.

If the measure gets on the ballot, a simple majority would be needed for passage. Kruse said the measure would take effect immediately, it if passes.

Kruse said the measure would ban new billboard construction on interstate and primary highways in the state. On-premise signs and official traveler information signs wouldn't be affected, he said.

The measure would prohibit billboard companies from cutting down trees on public rights of way to improve billboard visibility. It also would prohibit the replacement, rebuilding and relocation of existing billboards.

The measure would affirm the right of local governments to regulate billboards, Kruse said.

The billboard industry opposes the measure, arguing that it ultimately would kill the industry.

Bill May, general counsel and executive director of the Missouri Outdoor Advertising Association in Springfield, said the measure is aimed at eliminating most outdoor advertising in the state.

He also said the measure would result in the immediate removal of nearly 3,700 billboards, or over 25 percent of the approximately 13,500 billboards lining Missouri's major highways and interstates.

May said those billboards currently don't conform with existing state sign regulations. They are allowed as non-conforming signs.

But May said the petition measure makes no allowance for non-conforming signs.

Kruse, however, insists that existing billboards wouldn't have to be removed.

Henry Hungerbeeler, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, agrees with Kruse. He said so in a Feb. 28 letter to state Rep. Timothy Harlan, D-Columbia.

But May said MoDOT's analysis is wrong.

May said that under the federal Highway Beautification Act, the state must compensate billboard companies and property owners for the forced removal of billboards.

The billboard industry estimates it would cost the state $100 million in compensation for removal of about 3,700 non-conforming billboards.

May said Missouri's billboards have a market value of $500 million. The billboards that would be removed would total about $60 million in value, May estimated.

On top of that, landowners would be entitled to about $30 million to $40 million for the loss of revenue from the leasing of land for those billboards, May said. The estimate is based on the assumption that landowners would be compensated for 10 years of income.

Statewide, billboard companies pay $12 million to $15 million a year in lease payments to property owners, May said.

About 20 billboard companies operate in Missouri. All but a few are members of the Missouri Outdoor Advertising Association, May said.

Kruse, who has pushed for greater regulation of billboards since 1993, dismisses the complaints of the billboard industry. Missouri, he said, has one of the weakest billboard laws in the nation. "The state, in our view, looks terrible," he said. "A drive through Missouri is like a ride through the Yellow Pages."

Missouri has nearly three times as many billboards per mile as its eight neighboring states, he said.

In the 150 miles of Interstate 70 from Columbia to St. Louis, a driver is never out of sight of at least one billboard , except for a three-mile stretch, Kruse said.

In January 1996, it was estimated there were 1.68 billboards per highway mile in Missouri. Kruse said that figure is closer to 2 billboards per mile today.

Billboards, he said, should be regulated severely because they derive their value from their proximity to tax-supported highways.

Courts have held that states can ban billboard advertising. Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have removed all billboards, Kruse said.

Alaska's state constitution prohibits billboards. Rhode Island has prohibited the erection of new billboards since 1990, he said.

Oregon capped the number of billboards allowed on its major roads in 1975.

Kruse said 19 states currently prohibit new billboards in unzoned areas along interstate highways.

He estimated 20 percent of existing billboard sign space in Missouri remains empty. "They have overbuilt," he said of the billboard industry.

But May said the estimate is high. "Seventy percent of billboards in Missouri promote tourism or travel-related activities," he said.

With this being an election year, May said he expects billboard space will be filled by late summer.