Which states ban billboards

The state has several lobby groups and organizations to promote the interests of the outdoor advertising world in Florida, including the FOAA, or the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association. Georgia is just behind Florida with 9, billboards throughout the state. Bartow County, which is just northwest of Atlanta holds a few hundred of these billboards alone.

Generally, Georgia city centers and long stretches of interstate highways make up for a bulk of the nearly 10, outdoor advertising elements in the state.

Travelers going west to Alabama, east to South Carolina, north to Tennessee or south to Georgia are sure to see a few hundred on their way. Surprisingly, California only holds just over 8, billboards. This may seem like a lot until you consider how much land mass California has as it takes up a huge percentage of the West Coast!

This number means the billboards are more evenly distributed throughout the state, with respect to the natural beauty of the coast, national parks, mountains, and valleys.

This is in contrast to several other states on this list that are packed full of billboards! I started thinking about the people that run businesses in these states, and the homeowners who pay property tax.

Think what all that advertising revenue could do for our state! They could have taken the me-too path to outdoor advertising revenue, as other states have done, but instead recognized that an unmarred landscape would promote tourism and benefit the state in the long run. In Vermont, many who opposed the billboard ban have been won over by widespread recognition that Vermonters live in a more attractive environment, with a recognition that the law is good for business, says Michael Lipsky, who writes for the public policy organization Demos.

Funny, the happy residents and tourists who frequent Maine and Vermont each year must have missed this memo. This groundbreaking state law does not regulate signs located on the same property as the business they are advertising. Vermont was the first of four states, along with Maine, Hawaii and Alaska to ban billboards. In their place, Vermont uses travel information signs along state highway corridors to guide residents and visitors to destinations that are located off those highways.

Longley signed into law an act that resulted in the removal of 8, billboards. With the inability to use billboards, Hawaiin politicians have relied on sign-waving and human billboards to promote their campaigns. In place of billboards, the state of Vermont uses travel boards to convey pertinent information to travelers.

On-premise signage is allowed to be erected by the property owner, but it can only have an area of square feet and needs to be relevant to the activities being conducted on the property. Local municipalities still have a bit of control over signage along roads and highway corridors.