PA Members and Friends,

Please see the following message from Tom Miller. We are asking you to send a quick email to the Senate Finance Committee (emails below) and ask them to vote NO on Senate Bill 183. Then ask your friends and neighbors to do the same!

Thanks for your continued activism on this issue!

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Your e-mails and resolutions are really beginning to work! Support for the billboard bills has been dropping off as your legislators have begun to express some doubts about this legislation which has proved to be so unpopular. The sponsors are determined, however, and the billboard industry’s lobbyists have been relentless. There is a strong chance that they will push the bills again this week.

 

We need your help right now! This week we expect that the powerful Senate Finance Committee will vote on the bill. Please send the members a short, unequivocal e-mail asking them to vote NO! on Senate Bill 183 – the Billboard Bill.

 

In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards. Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards.  Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls. An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...

 

Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.

 

Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.

 

Seventy  percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.



More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.



Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org

 

Please forward this email to your email lists and networks!

 

The time is now. Together, North Carolina’s neighborhoods  can stop out-of-state billboard companies from spoiling our state’s natural beauty and  overriding local decisions.

 

Thank you,

 

T. R. Miller

Durham InterNeighborhood Council

 

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Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...

 

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]net, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],  [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

 

Your e-mails and resolutions are really beginning to work!  Support for the billboard bills has been dropping off as your legislators have begun to express some doubts about this legislation which has proved to be so unpopular.  The sponsors are determined, however, and the billboard industry’s lobbyists have been relentless.  There is a strong chance that they will push the bills again this week.

 

We need your help right now!  Together we will stop or at least blunt these bills. Please send a short email to the addresses below by Wednesday morning, April 27 (day of a key committee meeting in Raleigh).

 

In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards.  Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards.  Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls.  An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...

 

Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.

 

Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.

 

Seventy  percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.



More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.



Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org

 

Please forward this email to your email lists and networks.

 

The time is now. Together, we can stop out-of-state billboard companies from overriding local decisions.

 

Thank you,

 

T. R. Miller

Durham InterNeighborhood Council

 

****

 

Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...

 

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],  [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

 

Please take a moment to read the following article, written by Tom Miller, President of the Durham InterNeighborhood Council. Then please email and urge elected officials not to give in to the billboard companies.The City of Durham unanimously rejected Electronic Billboards in 2010 - there is no reason for the state to take away our local control!

WRAL News Story

FACT SHEET ON BILLBOARDS

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Neighborhood advocates and neighborhood organizations all across the state are joining forces to oppose the billboard bills, S.B 183 and H.B. 309, now pending in the general assembly.  These identical bills would allow clear cutting of trees to "improve" billboard visibility and what's worse, the bills would wrest control of billboards from local government and allow as many as 7 billboards a mile along NC roads and highways - even in towns and cities!  The bills would allow billboard owners to put up digital billboards anyplace a regular billboard could go.  These are bad bills and we need to stop them.

 

The bills are due to be taken up in the house and senate transportation committees this week.  We need to write to the members of both committees and let them know we don't want the legislature in Raleigh ramming digital billboards down our throats.

 

The addresses of the committee members appear below.  Send each a brief, but unequivocal message to vote against these bills.  Send the same message to your own senators and representatives.

 

Big win!

Here's the news, via Bull City Rising:

City Council was pressing well into the 11 o'clock hour last night by the time the procedural event happened: City Councilman Mike Woodard made the motion for a vote on the billboard industry's rezoning proposal, while Cora Cole McFadden seconded the item.

By this point, the outcome was clear -- enough Council members had signalled during discussion that they'd oppose the measure to make its failure a foregone conclusion. The only question was the margin of victory/loss, depending on your point of view.

Mayor Bill Bell opened the vote, and all eyes turned to the big-screen TVs mounted on the wall. A sea of reds, red for "Nay" -- save for one green mark next to Farad Ali's name.

"Uhhhh... uhhhh..." Ali stammered, clearly flustered at a mis-vote. To much laughter, Bell reminded Ali that he'd opened the vote, but hadn't closed it. Quickly, Ali's green box flipped to red.

Half the audience erupted in anticipated cheers; the other, stood silently and smoothed out their sports coats and dresses in preparation for a grim walk out of the chambers.

To organizers of the billboard measure's opposition, the outcome was expected coming into the night, if their assurances from the close-held lobbying of Council members held. But it wasn't clear until the very last whether it'd be unanimous or not.

That unanimity? It came down to a variety of factors, including the overwhelming differential in emails and letters from citizens; concerns over job and tax numbers; concerns over reopening the door on a legal matter long-fought with a seven-figure litigation bill by the City; and the surprise presence of an influential speaker for the opposition.

Next up:  the issue moves to the Durham County Commissioners, who control signage rules outside the city limit.