87-15
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R B SOL UTI 0 N
No. 87 - 15
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY
OF CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, SUPPORTING AN AMENDMENT
TO THE HIGHWAY BEAUTIFICATION ACT OF 1965 TO
PREVENT THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW BILLBOARDS ON
FEDERAL IN1'ERSTATE OR PRIMARY UIGHWAYS, TO
RETURN CONTROL OVER REMOVAL OF EXISTING BILL-
BOARDS TO STATES AND LOCi\L GOVERNMENTS, TO
REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT OF CASH PAYMENTS FOR
BILLBOARD REMOVAL, AND TO PROHIBIT THE
DESTRUCTION OF TREES AND VEGETATION ON
FEDERAL HIGHWAY R!GHTS-OF-WAY FOR THE PURPOSE
OF MAKING BILLBOARDS MORE VISIBLE.
WHEREAS, the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was intended
to require States to remove nonconforming and illegal signs from
highway rights-of-way, to restrict the construction and erection
of new signs, and to preserve natural beauty; and
WHEREAS, more new billboards have been erected than were
removed in accordance with the law, and the law has removed
from state and local government the right to control the removal
of billboards from their areas of jurisdiction; and
WHEREAS, the Highway Beautification Act requires payment to
the billboard industry for removing nonconforming signs, a special
privilege which is not paralleled in the treatment of other
nonconforming land uses and which has cost over $200 million
and will cost an estimated $1 billion more in payments to the
industry; and
WHEREAS, the Highway Beautification Act allows the destruction
of trees and other vegetation on the public rights-of-way, including
~ome trees planted under Title 3 of the Act, for the purpose of
making billboards more visible, a practice which is inconsistent
with the intended preservation of natural beauty; and
,WHEREAS, the Highway Beautification Act has been criticized
aS,a program dominated by the sign industry which actually enriches
'. " .,and subsidizes the industry it was intended" to regulate;
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY
COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF CLEARWATER, FLORIDA:
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Res., 87":15
4/2/87 .
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Section 1. The Congress of the United states is requested
to ,'a,~end the' HighwclY Beautification Act' 'of 1965 so as to prevent
the construction of new billboards on Federal interstate or
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primary highways, ~o return control over the removal of existing
billboards to statas and local governments, to repeal the
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unnecessary. and wasteful requirements of ~h payments for bill-
board removals, and to prohibit the destruction of trees and
vegetation on Federal highway rights-of-way for the sole purpose
of m~king billboards more'.visible.
Section 2.
Upo~ the adoption of this resolution, the City
:Clerk is authorized and directed to mail copies to Senator Lawton
Chiles, Senator Bob Graham, Congressman Mike'Bilirakis, Congressman
Bill Young, and to each member of the Pinellas County Delegation
, '
to. the Florida Legislature.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 2nd day of April, 1987.
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