Travis County Commissioners Court
September 4, 2007
Item 9
9. Consider and take appropriate action on comments to the Texas department of transportation commission regarding the changes to rules to allow development of digital/electronic billboards on Texas highways. Anybody here on this one?
>> briefly, the transportation commission had on its agenda on -- on August -- a couple of weeks ago, I believe. Had on its agenda to -- to -- to amend their rules regarding electronic billboards. Including led billboards with moving images. The -- the agenda item, if I can find it, was to approve the changes. The vote was taken to go ahead and approve the changes to make it possible to have led billboards and then the public comment period was opened up for those changes. The -- the actual amendments are included in the backup. And the concerns that were raised by some in the community, including scenic Texas, is that there's a federal study regarding the safety of led billboards that has not yet been completed and it would be preferrable to wait until that safety study is completed. The second aspect of it is that many in the community and across the state were concerned that it would run up the right-of-way costs for road construction in outlying areas. If led billboards went in, of course they would be far more expensive and make the -- make the property far more expensive to purchase. The third suggestion was that this may be premature, and draw a lawsuit for violation of the highway beautification act. Jeopardizing our federal transportation dollars. And in a time when we are already suffering recision of federal money, do we want to go down the road that quickly. In anticipation of the Commissioners court wanting to comment during this public comment period, my staff drafted up a letter that makes those three points, the safety issue points, the right-of-way and the federal -- the jeopardizing federal dollars point. That also is included in the backup.
>> as t.n.r. -- has t.n.r. Staff had a chance to review this?
>> to my knowledge, we haven't had --
>> the deadline actually, we have got some time, the deadline for comments is -- is the deadline for comments is December 6th, also anyone publicly, anyone out there in the world who want to comment on this can to -- to john campbell, director of right-of-way at txdot, 125 east 11th street, 78701.
>> makes sense to me, but I will need a week.
>> we will certainly review it and try to come up with some cost. I know that we have one that we use in school crossing zones and we will put that out generally during school mornings just so folks can know the speed limit. But I know the led ones that you are talking about are more expensive than that. I know we have costs because we have looked into it before. I will certainly have that reviewed by a traffic group. I guess it's also important to know what kind of
>> [indiscernible] will cities and counties have either for or against this particular proposal for the Texas transportation commission because I guess my point is if counties and cities both agree or disagree on -- on the issue, it appears to me they ought to have some merit. So --
>> the amendments to -- specifically I think it divides cities and counties in a way that we have seen in the past, we wouldn't be in favor of. Cities over a certain size can ban these billboards according to the amendment. But it makes no mention of counties having any authority to --
>> okay. So we are trying to get in the ballpark then? And that's -- okay. So --
>> so this is the result of the recent legislature?
>> I don't know if it is -- if it is a result of the recent legislature or if it's just a -- or if it's -- if it's just the -- the next asked by the industry to be able to utilize all of the technology that's available to them now. My understanding was that it's just this technology is available, the billboard industry finds this technology attractive, and effective and so they want to be able to utilize it. But I think that the jury is out, at least at the federal level, the study is not yet complete on the safety ramifications.
>> yeah. And --
>> what is the --
>> [indiscernible] any exents commt on it? I'm looking at the whole picture, not just Travis County. Even though we are going to do it if we need to do it. But if you look at the big picture, the big picture is other urban counties such as travis. They have big cities would probably ban that stuff.
>> the cuc is aware of it, but the policy committee hasn't had time to meet on it yet. The agenda item came up very quickly. I don't think that people anticipated it. It was literally days before the agenda -- that people realized what was going on. It was a very innocuous posting. So I don't believe the cuc has had a policy board meeting yet to weigh in on it. But they know about it.
>> okay.
>> we will have it back on next week.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, September 5, 2007, 18:30 AM