Banishing Billboards

With all its powers of persuasion, the Federal Government has taken well over two years, under the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, to sign agreements with 14 of the 50 states prohibiting billboards within 660 feet of interstate highways. But last week granite-hilled Vermont, by a senate vote of 20 to 9, sent along legislation to the Governor that Jan. 1, 1970, will allow that state to banish all billboards from its roads both big and small, except for signs on property owned by the advertiser. Vermont thus became only the second state to legislate comprehensive control over billboards. The other: Hawaii which has banned them since 1927 when the state was still a territory.

Vermonters did not make up their minds easily. Before passage, the bill faced a mini-filibuster in the legislature while anguished outdoor admen argued that the billboard ban would boomerang on business. Governor Philip H. Hoff, a Democrat and a staunch supporter of the legislation, contended that, on the contrary, "by making our highways more attractive, we will improve business."

Wider than the Bible. Central to all arguments was the fact that tourism is Vermont's No. 2 industry; each year, twelve times as many visitors pass through the state as there are Yankee natives (416,000). Most newspapers swung round to the view that proliferating billboards were striking a blow at the state's greatest tourist asset: its unspoiled wooded hills and valleys. Although one letter to the editor insisted that "good billboards are beautiful and break the monotony of a long motor trip," citizen mail to editors and legislators ran as much as 30-to-l in favor of the ban. Crucial to the passage the bill was the support by the host of organizations most dependent on out-of-state visitors, including the Vermont Ski Operators and the Green Mountain Motel Association. In fact, the Stowe Area Association, even before the signing of the bill, began voluntarily by removing its 200-odd billboards scattered throughout the state.

So that tourists will still be able to find their way to hotels and restaurants once the billboards are down, Vermont will allow businesses to advertise in special state-owned "sign plazas," where signs will be uniform and state-approved. Business will also be able to advertise in a new guidebook to vacation facilities, to be passed out at major entry points to the state. The guidebook, Vermont tourist officials promise, will be "more widely distributed than the Gideon Bible."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.