Issues

Fight Back Against Assault of the Billboards

by William G. Milliken
July 23, 2008

As governor, I tried mightily to protect the natural assets that give Michigan its unique identity. But it always seemed sadly ironic that a state so abundant in spectacular beauty and breathtaking vistas was also defiled with such an ugly slew of roadside billboards.

Still today, Michigan remains second in the nation with 16,000 billboards. Only Florida has more. States including Maine, Vermont, Hawaii and Alaska have banned them altogether.

What's worse is that Michigan's roadside clutter will get worse if pending pro-billboard legislation is enacted.

The changes, quietly approved by the state Senate in late June, reverse key parts of 1999 legislation reducing billboard numbers. This would be a slap in the face to Michiganders, who polls show overwhelmingly desire fewer billboards. And it would be an unconscionable sell-out to an industry that afflicts all of us with visual blight for the profit of a very few media giants who own the colossal signs.

At stake are 3,000 billboards that are illegal under the hard-fought gains made and enacted into law nine years ago. Those signs were allowed to remain until they deteriorate to the point where routine maintenance isn't enough to keep them sound. Then they were supposed to be removed.

But the current proposal would legalize them again—subverting the wishes of the public, the intent of the 1999 Legislature, and pleasing deep-pocketed industry lobbyists. It would also allow existing “on-premise“ billboard permits to be sold and moved to new, more objectionable locations; slash the allowable distance between billboards (from 1,000 feet to 500 feet on federal highways); and allow an unlimited number of tacky, small signs to litter the landscape as long as they promote religious or civic organizations.

Michigan's awful billboard assault is an affront to citizens' right to control when and where they are bombarded with commercial advertising. I

t also is an assault on Michigan's natural beauty. It lowers property values, degrades the image of the state, and undermines a tourism industry that is one of the lone bright stars in an otherwise dismal state economy.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has always been a proponent for Michigan's natural assets and a supporter of reasonable limitations on billboards. My hope is that should the state House of Representatives fail to pull the plug on this odious plan, Granholm will promptly veto it.

Michigan's spectacular vistas and natural beauty are among its most attractive and compelling assets. Protecting them from the billboard industry's crass assaults should be foremost in the minds of the people's representatives when they vote on this issue.

WILLIAM G. MILLIKEN was governor of Michigan from 1969-82. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com