LAW SOUGHT FOR CITIES TO BAN BILLBOARDS

Billboard advertising is a highly competitive and hotly contested industry throughout the state.

And the competition isn't just between billboard companies and the towns they advertise.

But Scenic Missouri, a group dedicated to protect the state's scenic resources, wants the legislature to pass a law allowing cities to ban new billboards.

The group has a survey that showed 58 percent of some 820 registered voters want some control over the amount of billboards along highways.

"Every town is different," Scenic Missouri's executive director, Karl Kruse, said, adding that his group thinks cities should decide about billboards.

"If cities want to have billboards, that's their right," Kruse said. "But if they don't, there is no law to provide for that right."

Cape Girardeau doesn't have a law banning new billboards. In fact, the city authorized a billboard to promote the use of Trans World Express flights to St. Louis.

The billboard along I-55, five miles north of Brewer, reads: "Flying to St. Louis ... you'd be there right now." The advertisement, which began in July, is designed to lure travelers heading north from Cape Girardeau to use Trans World Airlines' commuter airline instead of the highway.

The advertisement also promotes the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

The billboard has been effective, said Sandy Bloom, airport administrative secretary.

People have seen the billboard and called for information, Bloom said, adding that the calls were directed to Trans World Express.

Besides the calls, TWE had its best months from July to November, averaging more than 600 boardings. The best month prior to that was June, with 563 boardings.

Robinson Displays of Perryville sold the space and sign used to promote TWE.

Robinson's office manager, Brenda Davis, said the sign today would cost from $250 to $500, or whatever the market withstands.

In St. Louis, signs would be rented for between $2,000 and $2,500.

Davis said Robinson has billboards in Southeast Missouri, St. Louis and Southern Illinois, but wouldn't say how many.

While Cape Girardeau has used billboards to promote its airport, Jackson has banned new billboards on Highway 61. That ban has yet to be tested.

Kruse said some cities have ordinances banning billboards, and those laws are being tested in court.

The dispute is more than the advertisement, said a spokesman for Drury Southwest Signs of Cape Girardeau.

General manager David Jansen said billboards help the economic growth and development of towns.

Drury Signs has 150 billboards from Festus to Blytheville, Ark., and Drury Display billboards in other cities throughout the state.

There is also Auburn Outdoor Signs, a Cape Girardeau billboard company that has about 90 billboards in places throughout Southeast Missouri and St. Louis.

"Look at how many jobs billboards create," Jansen said. "It's everything from the people who paint the signs to the people receiving land rent to lumber companies, lighting companies and salesmen who rent the space."

Then there are the hotels and restaurants that rely on that advertising to generate more business.

Jansen said billboards are a source of information for travelers looking for a place to stay or something to eat.

"If they didn't see the billboard, how would they know what's out there when traveling on the interstate?" he asked.

Kruse doesn't think billboard advertising is necessary for communities to thrive.

Towns prosper without billboards, he said, adding that Hawaii, Vermont, Maine and Alaska have banned billboards. And, he said, they are dependent on tourism.

"How do people find what they need?" he asked.

Kruse, a Columbia city councilman, said Drury Signs is suing the city over its ordinance to separate billboards by a 2,000-foot span.

In Cape Girardeau, billboards must be a minimum of 500 feet apart and 100 feet from a residential structure.

Billboards are allowed on parcels of land in Cape Girardeau bordering I-55, Route K, William Street, Independence, Broadway, Highway 74, and Kingshighway from Bouldercrest Drive to the south city limits.

Columbia is one of 35 Missouri cities to ban new billboards.

More than 1,000 cities nationwide have banned new billboards.

Columbia won't issue a billboard permit and has said it doesn't want "Drury's or anybody else's billboards," Kruse said.

Kruse said that as of October 1993 the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District ruled that cities are not authorized to prohibit billboards on interstate highways.