Testimony of Meg Maguire, former president of Scenic America, to the Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Rural Enterprises, Agriculture and Technology Hearing on the Highway Beautification Act

May 15, 2003

Chairman Graves and Members of the Committee. I am Meg Maguire, President of Scenic America. I   welcome the opportunity to speak to you today.

Scenic America is the only national non-profit organization dedicated solely to stewardship of our   nation's natural beauty and distinctive rural and urban community character. Our network includes 25 organizations -- 16 associate organizations and nine full affiliate organizations in California,   Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Our members are from rural and urban areas, from small businesses and big corporations. Among their accomplishments is stopping new billboard construction altogether in nearly 750 local jurisdictions which we can document, though we believe the figure to be substantially larger than this. Major cities such as Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, TX; Durham, NC; Los Angeles, CA and hundreds of mid-sized cities and small towns have taken this step because the business community believes that billboard proliferation negatively affects the overall image and quality of life of residents. All are united in their belief that the Highway Beautification Act has, through a series of ill-conceived Congressional amendments, become the   Billboard Proliferation Act and that their communities are suffering from its effects.

Your focus today is on the effect of  sign control on small rural businesses. As a former small business owner of a video production company, I feel blessed that in America anyone can go into   business, investing individual ingenuity and energy to create something of worth and then to let the world know about it. My roots are in rural Virginia where both of my grandfathers struggled as small business owners during the Depression. So I have a great deal of sympathy and understanding of the obstacles that small business owners face.

Today I would like to add Scenic America's perspective on five points:

1. Billboard proliferation is adversely impacting the quality of life in rural and urban areas.
2. Alternatives to billboard advertising for small rural businesses is a win-win strategy for all.
3. Scenic beauty and authenticity are highly valued in the American economy.
4. Congress needs to thoroughly reform the Highway Beautification Act through a thoughtful and   deliberate process of study and fact-finding, not piecemeal amendments that could have serious unanticipated consequences for states, counties and local jurisdictions.
   
5. Billboards are controlled  primarily by state and local governments, not by the federal government.
   

Today I include in my testimony only a small fraction of the information we have on the HBA and why it needs reformation. I want to stick as closely as possible to the relationship of billboards to the needs of small business, and the relationship of billboards to other property values.

I. Billboard Proliferation is Rapidly Increasing in America

America is littered with billboards. Some people say, "I thought Lady Bird got rid of all those billboards." My response is, "You must fly everywhere. When did you last drive through Missouri, a state with three times as many billboards per mile as any of the eight neighboring states? When did you last visit Florida, first in the number of billboards on federal roads in the nation? Have you ever driven around Ohio or Louisiana?" Increasingly, to see both rural and urban America is to be   overwhelmed by "litter-on-a-stick" -- the junk mail of the American highway.

Lady Bird Johnson's goal of cleaning up America's billboard blight has sadly resulted in the opposite effect in most states because the law is weak, not well enforced, and lacking in even the most fundamental official data.
What we do know is that the number, size and height of billboards on America's highways is much greater now than it was in 1965 when the HBA was passed. In 1991 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) estimated that 425,000 billboards were located along federal aid highways and that the number was increasing by 6% annually. This means that any way you look at it there are between 731,000 -- 885,000 billboards on America's federal aid highways alone -- not counting city streets, or state   and country roads that are not affected by the Highway Beautification Act. [2] So the issue is not that we have too few billboards in America, but rather that we have so many billboards that they have dramatically changed the beauty and character of America's rural areas. Increasingly one place looks like another and every place looks like no place -- so why go any place?

Visual pollution hurts local economies and often lowers property values.
In rural Holmes County, Ohio the Amish strongly believed that billboards benefited neither their businesses nor the beauty of their landscape. Unfortunately, county billboard controls were weak. Several years ago when the county submitted an application to become a state scenic byway, the Ohio Department of Transportation took 22 months to review it. During that time the billboard industry took advantage of weak laws and put up 100 billboards. People in the county are stunned and heart-sick. Now, instead of a pastoral rural setting and an authentic way of life, billboards disfigure the land and discourage people from visiting.

Scenic Texas, the largest Scenic America affiliate, has said, and I quote:
"Many people move to rural areas to escape the commercialism and clutter that exists in urban areas. In Texas we have received numerous complaints regarding billboard proliferation in our rural   areas. There are countless examples of retirees and others who have invested   their savings in their dreams only to find billboards shining all night long, interfering with the very reasons they moved from the city. As rural areas become urbanized, billboards are erected, and they are there forever.

"Experience in Texas is that, by and large, businesses in rural Texas do not use the existing billboards. Instead, the overwhelming majority of the existing billboards are utilized by national companies. The 30,000 billboards that exist in Texas have been sufficient to accommodate the advertising needs of the business community."

Indeed, Scenic Texas has gained strong support for legislation now under consideration in the legislature to stop new billboard construction in the state from over 217 small businesses,   churches, schools, community groups, individuals, families and ranchers and local jurisdictions that participate in the state's Adopt a Highway Program in Texas. Most of these are from rural communities.

I invite you to visit Scenic America's web site -- www.scenic.org -- for a number of homeowner horror stories that show that billboards can hurt all of us. For example, in a widely publicized case in Pax, West Virginia, a double decker 102 foot high billboard appeared on the property of a gas station and motel which were adjacent to the modest homes of the Painter and McNeely families. As a result, bright light pours into their homes 24 hours a day and they cannot see stars in the night sky. Worst of all, the sign's presence has devalued their homes by over 30%. The McNeely property was worth $22,000 before the billboards; now their home is worth $16,500. The Painter's home was worth $23,000 before the billboards and is now worth $16,000.

Robert McElfresh and his wife built their dream home in the 1950's on a rural Ozark hill overlooking the beautiful Meramec River Valley, near Pacific, MO. Some years later, Historic Highway 66 was replaced by Interstate 44. In 1997, Larry Carpenter, the owner of a nearby small billboard company (Carpenter Outdoor -- later bought out by a much larger out of state company), erected a 110' double-decker billboard some 50' from his back porch. During early evening hours, when the sun is setting over the river valley, the advertising copy on the west side of the billboard actually reflects off Mr. McElfresh's dining room wall. The thousands of bugs drawn to the twelve 250 watt high-pressure sodium lights and their blinding glare make it impossible for Mr. McElfresh to enjoy his back yard at night. Clearly, Mr. McElfresh's property rights are being violated.

In April, 2003, Karen Huber testified before the Texas House and Senate that the value of her home was being seriously affected by the erection of six very large, bright billboards on the hill top where the view is long and beautiful. Attached is her testimony and I request that it be entered into the record as part of my testimony as well. It is all too typical of the undermining of property values that new billboard construction is having throughout America today.

One of the most egregious abuses of the HBA is called the "unzoned loophole" which permits many billboards, most unrelated to nearby businesses, to be constructed in rural areas. In 1984 the General Accounting Office found the economic incentive for billboard companies to erect new boards so strong that "in some instances sign companies have resorted to using inactive or sham businesses as the basis for securing the necessary state permit." The mid-west and the south are particularly beset with rural billboard pollution.

II. There are several landscape-friendly information alternatives to small businesses other than billboards.

Billboards are not the best advertising choice for small rural businesses. Consider that four largely rural states with many small businesses are entirely billboard free: Alaska, Maine, Hawaii and Vermont. All are prime tourist destinations.

Vermont took down its last billboard in 1975. From 1976-78 tourism revenues increased by over 50%. Christopher Barbieri, President of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce has said: "Although there was some initial sensitivity that removing billboards might hurt tourism, it has had the opposite effect. Tourism is up for all businesses both large and small. Vermont lures tourists from New Hampshire by ads on New Hampshire's billboard that say "There Are No Billboards in Vermont. Here's Why." The photograph is a beautiful pastoral scene in rural Vermont.

Lyman Orton, proprietor of the Vermont Country Store, has said: "The billboard ban provided not only a level playing field for all of us, it opened the roadways to scenic vistas and created more than compensating publicity. The absence of billboards in Vermont is the best billboard for all of the   tourist business."

Mr. Orton makes an excellent point when he speaks of "a level playing field for all of us." The absence of billboards creates an equitable situation between small businesses and big businesses. Where billboards don't exist, small businesses can compete based on their key advantage -- service.
In Missouri, a 1996 survey of billboards along I-70 within the city limits of Columbia, MO showed that, out of the 95 billboards along the highway, only seven advertised small mom and pop   businesses. The surveyor asked each of those seven businesses how it affected their business. All seven businesses said it wasn't worth the money they had to pay and most were planning not to renew their leases. Today, none of those same small businesses is advertising on billboards and all are still operating. Ten different local businesses are advertising on these signs.

One point on which all of us can agree is that local residents and tourists alike must be able to find small businesses. Billboards are not essential in this task because alternatives do exist.

The most common alternatives are logo signs and tourist-oriented directional signs (TODS). Logo   signs and TODS display only essential information for travelers and are smaller, less obtrusive, more affordable, and easier to read than billboards. Logo signs advertise gas, food, camping and lodging and tourist attractions at nearby highway exits and already exist on interstates in at least 44 states. TODS appear on non-interstate highways to supply information about local businesses and attractions, such as distances and directions. The outdoor advertising industry has a number of contracts to manufacture and erect logo signs which we think is an excellent use of their entrepreneurial skills.

Vermont has a particularly good TODS program which makes getting around the state quite easy. I strongly recommend to the Members of the Committee on Small Business that they work with their state departments of transportation to institute TODS programs throughout their states. You need not amend any federal law to put in place a small business-friendly way-finding system in your state.

Alternative sign programs are terrific for small businesses and for scenic beauty because a) they display only essential traveler information, whereas most billboards have little to do with local services; b) they are smaller, less obtrusive and easier to read than billboards; and c) they generally cost local businesses far less to advertise on than billboards.

Technology is rapidly rendering billboards obsolete. John Paul Nichols, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Cendant Hotels, commented in a 2002 interview that "...terrestrial billboards... are becoming a thing of the past.... My little hand held electronic device can find every hotel in the United   States. I don't need to wait for a billboard. The cell phone will alert me to my hotel preferences, not some sign I find by accident."

The Internet is a fantastic source of travel information and increasingly people are going online to sites like Expedia.com to plan trips down to the last detail and pay for tickets and hotel reservations in advance. Those of us who plan this way -- and I am sure it includes many people in this room -- dare not depend on random information which may or may not be on a billboard, especially when we know that most small businesses of the kind I want to patronize when I travel do not advertise on billboards.

Hotel reservations represents one of the fastest growing segments of the online travel industry and we want to make it known that Priceline Hotels President Chris Soder notes that his service has sold over 8,000,000 hotel room nights, with about half of those room nights being booked in the last 12 months.

On May 12, TravelCLICK released results from the company's 2002 eTRAK report demonstrating that total Internet reservations received at the central reservation offices (CRO) for the major chains grew 75% in 2002 over 2001. And quite recently a survey by PhoCusWright released at an online travel industry conference in Miami Beach, Fla., indicated that 21 million Americans "usually" make travel arrangements online -- 75 percent more than last year.

There are so many ways that small businesses can take advantage of the Internet without threatening anyone's property values or harming the beauty around them.

In addition, in-car navigation systems, which soon will become a standard feature on new cars, can provide systematic information for out-of-state travelers and local residents alike. As more business locations are mapped in a Geographic Information System database, this information becomes accessible for all travelers.

If you are technology averse, printed travel directories and travel guides provide systematic and comprehensive listings of all kinds of information, and you can carry these guides in your car.

Other strategies exist to promote small business development and also respect the American landscape. Since 1991 Scenic America has worked very hard to strengthen the National Scenic Byways Program created under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. This Program aims both to preserve the scenic, historic and natural resources of the countryside and to strengthen small local businesses. Success stories abound from coast to coast in all of the states that participate in the program. Many states including New York, Colorado, West Virginia, New Mexico, Arkansas and others report inspiring stories of new business starts; partnerships among small businesses to promote all businesses along the byway, not just their own; and successful international promotion of the qualities that people want to see and experience -- nature, scenery, history, culture, archaeology and recreation. Even the billboard industry has never claimed that visitors to our scenic byways have come to see the billboards!

The University of Montana's Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research 1996 survey of 5,800 responders to questionnaires given to 12,941 found that only 2% found that business billboards were the "Most Helpful Source of Information Used for Trip While in Montana." The most helpful (24%) were people in motels, restaurant, gas stations, etc. -- in other words, word-of-mouth referral.

III. Scenic beauty and authenticity are highly valued in the American economy.

Beaufort County in S.C. is a rural coastal county that banned billboards in the mid-1980s and yet has been one of the highest growth counties in the state, in terms of population gain, average retail sales, and income. The reason many people cite for the growth is that this is a rural county that has taken steps to preserve its unique rural southern charm.

Tourism is America's third largest retail sales industry. In 2000 tourism created $537.2 billion in total expenditures and $98.7 billion in tax revenue for federal, state and local governments. Outdoor recreation was listed as the second most popular activity for Americans, followed by visitation of historical places, beaches, cultural events and national and state parks. (Travel Industry Association of America.)

Conservation International notes that nature and heritage based tourism is becoming one of the fastest growing industries in the United States today. Nature tourism has been increasing at an annual rate between 10-30 percent a year, while overall tourism has grown at a rate of only four percent annually. Furthermore, 149 million American's 16 years and older -- or more than 69 percent -- of the population hiked, climbed, kayaked or participated in another outdoor activity in 2001. Cultural heritage tourism is based on the visitation of areas that are remarkable for their unique historic and cultural value -- not the number of billboards they have.

And travel and tourism are lucrative and promise to become more so as the baby-boomers retire and seek genuinely authentic places to live and to visit. According to the Travel Industry of America, the average U.S. traveler spends $457 and 3.4 nights away from home per trip. Visitors to historic and cultural attractions sites spend $631 and 4.7 nights. Americans are looking for a way to escape   cities and enjoy the beauty offered by unique scenery and beautiful landscapes. In fact, the President's Commission on American Outdoors in 1985 reported that natural beauty was the most important criterion for adults choosing a site for outdoor recreation. The more a community does to enhance its unique natural, scenic, historic and architectural assets, the more tourists it   attracts.

People take road trips, not to see the billboards but to see America the Beautiful.

IV. Congress should drastically reform the entire Highway Beautification Act, not amend it with piecemeal measures.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: The Highway Beautification Act is indeed, a broken law. Since this hearing is about only one aspect of the law -- how it affects small businesses -- I will not go into full detail about the law's failings. Scenic America gets calls from over 200   communities each year that are seeking to control billboards. Often they cite provisions in the HBA that stifle their local control and complain bitterly of threats by industry lobbyists to sue their communities if they take any action to control billboards.

So let us remember that the Act should fulfill its original purpose of protecting the public investment in highways, in promoting safety and the recreational value of travel, and in preserving natural beauty. The Act was explicitly designed to set minimum billboard control standards. One would expect it to accomplish two objectives:  1) to set an adequate baseline, so that major highways will be protected and beautified even if only the minimums are used; and 2) to empower state and local   governments to take further steps.

For the Act to work it must 1) limit new billboards to only those areas that are clearly industrial or commercial in nature; 2) eliminate illegal billboards; 3) remove nonconforming billboards steadily; and 4) accomplish these goals in an efficient, fiscally responsible manner.

We hope that the Congress will launch an objective fact-finding study of many facets of the Highway Beautification Act to gain more knowledge about how this legislation has fulfilled the purposes   which Congress intended, how it has been thwarted in its purpose, and how best to reform the Act. The Congress needs to look at a) federal and state data collection; b) permit fees which do not even cover the cost to states of administering the outdoor advertising control program; c) the woefully   inadequate protection of rural and scenic areas; d) the policy of cutting publicly owned trees in the public right-of-way for private billboard visibility; and e) the shameful lack of state and local enforcement to remove illegal billboards. These pre-reform studies also need to look at alternative   information technologies and their potential impact on small rural businesses so that this committee can help everyone who cares about strong small business development in America. I can assure you that billboard industry funded studies and "academic experts"do not provide the objectivity needed on which to draw these conclusions.

V. States and local governments, not the Federal government, set most billboard policy.

Under the HBA all states, if they want, can allow billboards everywhere adjacent to interstate and primary highways, except on land zoned for residential purposes (not much of this next to major highways). Since the HBA permits states to allow billboards as close as 100' apart on primary highways and 500' apart on Interstate highways, up to 1,200 square feet in size with no overall height limit, in zoned or unzoned commercial and industrial areas (in effect, anywhere except zoned residential   areas), we cannot understand how the HBA "failed to take into account its affect on small business."

Mr. Chairman, I know that you are familiar with the action of the Missouri state legislature last year. In 2000, 1,074,895 (49%) Missourians voted in November 2000 on a ballot initiative to prohibit all new billboards. (The measure was leading in the polls by 15% until the billboard industry launched a last minute ad campaign that radically distorted the cost to the state of enacting the measure.) In 2002, at the request of the Missouri Outdoor Advertising Association, led by Lamar Outdoor of Baton Rouge, the Missouri Legislature passed amendments making the Missouri law stricter than the HBA. The Legislature increased the minimum spacing requirement to 1,400 feet on both Interstate and primary highways in Missouri.
In addition to allowing billboards, the HBA, as implemented by Missouri and most other states, provides opportunities for small businesses to advertise on official highway information signs (Logo Signs) and "tourist oriented directional signs" (TODS) on highway rights of way. Public opinion polls in Missouri have consistently shown that travelers prefer official highway signs over commercial billboards by a margin of 5:1.

Georgia, a state which has gone in the opposite direction from Missouri,
permits double stacked spectacular billboards every 500 feet on both sides along the Interstate. I suppose if some people in Georgia want the derision from travelers that this mess invites, they can have it. But many Georgians hate it and are working hard to curb this form of "sky trash."
Conclusion

Mr. Chairman, I would ask the Members of the Committee to look seriously at one of the primary threats to small business which is not lack of access to billboards but the presence of big box retail and chain store locations that are draining the life out of many small rural towns. Since this factor in the decline of small businesses is not the focus of this hearing I would like to refer you to the National Trust for Historic Preservation which has done extensive research and publications on this   topic. The topic of rural commercial development and its impacts on local small businesses is of great concern to everyone who wants to preserve and enhance our historic, scenic and cultural heritage.

In closing, let me say that I believe that we can grow and must provide a friendly climate for small rural businesses in this country, for they are at the heart and soul of our traditional American way of life. We must protect our nation's stunning natural beauty, not just in a few national parks, but throughout the country. And we must also protect the character of our nation's cities, towns and countryside for generations to come. I believe that, working together, we can do all of these things. More and more billboards are not the wave of the future -- they are a retreat to the past. Let us move forward to find new ways of promoting the economies of rural areas.

As the great Republican conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, said in 1913:
"The civilized people of today look back with horror at their medieval ancestors who wantonly destroyed great works of art or sat slothfully by while they were destroyed. We have passed this stage... Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy our forests and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at best it looks as if our people   are awakening."

Theodore   Roosevelt
"Outlook" -- June 25, 1913

Thank you for inviting me to testify on this important matter.
- Meg Maguire
  Scenic America