Scenic Austin

Organization: History and Recent Work

In 1965, Austin’s own Lady Bird Johnson inspired Congress to pass the Highway Beautification Act to protect our national highways from the then nascent outdoor advertising industry and its blight on our roadways. The HBA required that each state’s department of transportation establish a sign administration to regulate the size and spacing of outdoor signage. However, last minute “poison pills” were inserted on recommendation from the outdoor advertising lobbyists, give the Act the nickname of the “Billboard Protection Act”.

Soon after its passage, it became clear that there were serious flaws in the Act. Individuals who urged the drafting of the original bill, including members of Lady Bird’s staff, formed the Coalition for Scenic Beauty (now Scenic America) in an attempt to mitigate the damage caused by the passage of this Act. Scenic America chapters have been formed nation wide, to focus on State and Local policy relating to billboards and other visual blight on the landscapes.

In 1991, Scenic Austin was formed by individuals who had been participating at the State level for several years. In 1983, Austin’s City Council banned the construction of new billboards within their jurisdiction. Since then, their ordinance has been continually under attack by the outdoor advertising industry.

Since its inception, Scenic Austin has been a primary resource for the City of Austin regarding the drafting of new policy. In Austin, the outdoor advertising industry is well funded, and it has been the role of Scenic Austin to coordinate grass-roots campaigns to ensure that any changes to City policy are made with the visual environment in mind.

Since 2004, the City of Austin has relied on Scenic Austin to help maintain their billboard inventory. Scenic Austin staff continues to work very closely with the city’s signage administrators to ensure that city records are as current as possible for enforcement purposes.

In 2005, after a successful campaign from the outdoor advertising industry, a billboard relocation ordinance was narrowly passed by council, allowing billboard construction in new areas for the first time in over twenty years. In 2008, the lobbyists pushed for the allowance of relocations to Scenic Roadways. Scenic Austin mobilized dozens of neighborhood organizations, and in April of 2008, the changes were abandoned after Council members received thousands of emails and phone calls from concerned citizens.

Scenic Austin is working to capitalize on this recent success and organize these neighborhood organizations to work with Scenic Austin to get the relocation ordinance repealed. Additionally, Scenic Austin has recently been asked by the city staff members to coordinate cross-referencing of several billboard registration databases with the inventory for their use. The work is time consuming, but is necessary for the enforcement of current city policy.

Currently, Scenic Austin has one part-time staff member and a small operating Board of Directors. It is Scenic Austin’s goal to hire the staff member full time, to coordinate the efforts of the citizens in their activities and complete the research requested by city staff.

Demographics

The City of Austin, including its extra territorial jurisdiction, is home to 939,395 citizens, according to 2008 statistics provided by the City.

The billboard relocation ordinance was intended to lessen the proliferation of billboards in Austin’s east side, which is characterized by its large African American and Hispanic populations. This area has been the target of a massive revitalization effort by the city and non-profits in recent years, including streetscape, housing and small business loan projects.

This area has been a target for billboards for several years, and neighbors in the area feel that these billboards (which frequently advertise alcohol) prey on the low-income minorities in the area. Since the Relocation Ordinance was passed, this area has seen an increase in number of billboards, despite the council’s intent.

According to the City of Austin Demographics, East Austin is one of the most populated neighborhoods, with a 2005 population of 22,705. 2000 US Census Data indicates that residents in this area are 67.7% Hispanic, 23.7% African American, with an overall median household income of $23,348 annually. Citywide demographics for the same year are 30% Hispanic, 10% African American, with a median household income of $42,689.

Need

At present, no other organization in the Austin area focuses on addressing the social or economic impact of outdoor advertising on our city\\\'s quality of life.

Timeline of Scenic Austin achievements:

1983-1985

Austin passes Ordinances to prevent new billboards within corporate limits and the ETJ.

1991

Scenic Austin founded.

1991-1999

Opposed overhead electric distribution lines in Austin.
Convinced City of Austin to conduct an inventory of billboards and wrote the successful ISTEA grant application which funded the inventory.
Monitored the emergence of the Billboard “Rustlers” – small sign companies that had discovered a loophole in a sign amendment passed in the early 90s which allowed replacement of pole signs, including billboards, if 25% shorter or smaller in area.

1999

With new sign companies “rustling” leases from existing companies, lawsuits ensued. The city council amended the ordinance, clarifying it to further encourage replacements, and requiring replacement signs to have a 25% smaller face area, and removing the option of making them shorter.
The City of Austin conducted the Billboard Inventory, funded by the ISTEA grant secured with Scenic Austin’s assistance. The Inventory included the owner’s name, location, sign face area, construction type, number and material of poles, advertising company owner, and type of business advertised on the sign. This information was to be maintained by the city on an annual basis as per the granting documents.

2001

The 1999 amendment left several items open to interpretation and sign companies again began to file suit. To mitigate some of the lawsuits, City Council opted to revisit the ordinance once again with the stated intent of eventual elimination of billboards from the city. By maintaining the right to new replacement signs, the Council could do little to strengthen the ordinance, but they assigned the Planning Commission and a special task force to address the issue.

2002

10 January 2002

After a year of discussion, the council finally voted after three readings to “strengthen” the sign ordinance using several innovative techniques:
- While signs could still be replaced, replacements must either be 25% smaller in dimension (roughly 41% smaller in area), two other signs must be permanently removed to replace a third sign with a 25% reduction in area, or one other sign in a designated scenic or historic district must be permanently removed to replace a second sign with a 25% reduction in area. Reducing height of the billboard would not be an option.
Scenic Austin secured a commitment from Representative Mike Krusee to support a bill to ensure that SH130 was put on the list of billboard-free highways. (The bill was passed during the 2005 Legislative Session)
In an effort to increase awareness of the Scenic agenda in surrounding areas, examples of model sign ordinances were provided by Scenic Austin and Scenic Texas to cities throughout the Hill Country including Llano, Burnet, Marble Falls, and Johnson City.

2003

With Scenic Austin’s help, the City of Martindale banned new billboard construction within the city and it’s ETJ.
With consultation from Scenic Austin staff, San Marcos City Council passed a compromise billboard ordinance that does not allow new billboards but does allow a company to remove and replace a billboard.

2004

5 February 2004

Actively aided Scenic Texas in the effort to achieve more effective billboard control statewide, and to require landscaping on state roadways.
Austin City Council passed an amendment to the city signage code that included the prohibition of changing the method or technology used to convey a sign’s message, and clearly prohibited electronically controlled multi-message billboards including “tri-faced” signs and any future technology. Additionally, Council amended current code relating to the 25% reduction in dimension to include the apron of a sign. The space commonly used for the billboard company name was included in the sign area.

2004 – Present

Scenic Austin has effectively slowed progress on the Billboard Relocation ordinance proposed by Betty Dunkerley and Brewster. Currently, the Ordinance is on it’s 19th draft, and if the next draft is not approved (it is likely that it won’t be), Betty Dunkerley has stated that she will no longer pursue it.

May 2005

Working with Scenic Texas, Scenic Austin brought the four illegally erected billboards adjacent SH130 to the media’s attention, and lobbied TXDOT to enforce their Rural Road Act. TXDOT is currently addressing the issue, and it is hoped that the four billboards will come down.

Billboard Documentation

Billboards in existence as of the 1999 Billboard inventory: 759
Current Billboard tally, according to available information from the City of Austin: 694

Documented Billboard reduction 1999 – 2005: 65
(Donna Cerken, former COA Signage Officer, has testified that this number is at least 125)

Scenic Austin’s Billboard documentation far exceeds that of the City of Austin. Our billboard tracking documents include information on billboard locations, land owners and their contact information, sign owners, and billboard construction details. This information, when used in partnership with City of Austin signage department personnel, could provide a more accurate depiction of progress related to billboard reduction, and also provides a means of determining whether or not billboards have been illegally modified. Additionally, it records registered billboards and automatically determines the uncollected fees of unregistered billboards.