Judge rules that city law does indeed ban new signs from going up, but Planning Commission might change ordinance to allow them

Throughout Texas, as many as 45,000 billboards line roadways -- an increase of 10,000 from a decade ago, Scenic Texas estimates. El Paso has about 1,200 billboards.

Billboard opponents won a surprising victory Wednesday against a well-financed effort to allow clear-cutting in front of highway advertisements.

A federal judge has thrown out challenges to the constitutionality of the city’s regulation of billboards and other outdoor advertising on arterial highways and in certain zoning districts.

A City Council panel that found billboards to be a type of pollution plans to clean it up.