The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Transportation approved legislation Monday designed to legitimize the 70 digital billboards in the state and pave the way for more.
HB 2757 is being pushed by the billboard industry after the state Court of Appeals ruled last year that the law does not permit the internally lighted billboards with changing messages adjacent to federal and state highways. Wendy Briggs who lobbies for Clear Channel Outdoor, said the legislation returns the law to what it was presumed to be before the ruling.
Briggs also said nothing in the law overturns the right of cities to have their own restrictions.
But foes said that ignores the fact that light from the signs does not honor city boundaries.
Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said she wants representatives from the astronomy industry to sit down with billboard companies to see if a compromise can be worked out before the bill, which already has been approved by the House, goes to the full Senate.
