DATE: Tuesday, April 29, 1997               TAG: 9704290279

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

1,314 VA. BILLBOARDS VIOLATE U.S. LAW, GROUP SAYS

More than one-third of the billboards along federally funded highways in Virginia are illegal and must be removed under federal law, a conservation group says.

Scenic America, however, does not expect those billboards to come down soon. Though prohibited under the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, the mechanism for funding the removal of the illegal billboards was gutted by Congress, the nonprofit group said.

About 36 percent of Virginia's 3,683 billboards violate the federal standards, according to a study released last week by Scenic America. The 1,314 illegal billboards places Virginia 19th in the nation for unlawful highway signs, the study said. Texas was ranked No. 1.

The study found that 0.5 percent of the illegal billboards are removed nationally each year. In 1995, no billboards were removed in Virginia.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, 875,000 illegal billboards have been removed nationally since 1965.

Frank Vespe, a Scenic America spokesman, said the bill allows billboards only in areas zoned commercial or industrial, or in unzoned areas that are commercial or industrial.

All that is required for an unzoned area to be considered commercial or industrial is one business, Vespe said Monday.

He said most of the state's illegal billboards are erected in areas that once were unzoned commercial or business areas that now have reverted to unzoned rural. If, for instance, the gas station goes out of business, the billboards become illegal.

The original law, championed by then-first lady Lady Bird Johnson, encompassed all areas within 650 feet of the road. That led to the proliferation of billboards outside that area, but still visible from the roadway. A stretch of Interstate 95 from north of Richmond to Fredericksburg has several dozen huge billboards outside the 650-foot jurisdiction.

Congress later amended the law to prohibit any billboards that can be seen from the highway, making the I-95 billboards illegal.

In 1978, Congress required that the owners of illegal billboards be paid if their billboards are removed. At the same time, Congress stopped appropriating money to pay for the removal.

``The Highway Beautification Act should be renamed the Billboard Protection Act,'' said Meg Maguire, Scenic America president.

``I would call it a business-protection act,'' said Burns of the advertisers' association.

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