Core of Texas law curbing highway signs struck down

Opponents of billboards and other signs along Texas roadways reacted on Monday with dismay to an appeals court decision striking down significant portions of the Texas Highway Beautification Act, saying the ruling could lead to a litany of signs along federally funded highways.

The Third District Court of Appeals in Austin issued the decision on the state law — cheered as the linchpin of Texas’ scenic roadway efforts — because the 42-year-old act restricts free speech.

Scenic Texas, a statewide group that has fought watering down Texas billboard laws, is urging the Texas Department of Transportation — the defendant in the current case — and state officials to appeal.

“What it appears to do is strip away TxDOT’s authority to regulate outdoor advertising as they have

been doing it for the last 40 years,” said Margaret Lloyd, a Galveston resident and vice president of Scenic Texas. “We are concerned that authority has been removed completely.”

The ruling came late last week in a case regarding a 2011 sign erected to support Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. Auspro Enterprises placed the sign on its property along Texas 71.

Auspro is owned by Michael Kleinman, who also owns the Planet K chain of smoke, erotica and novelty shops in the Austin and San Antonio area. The sign was in front of the Bee Cave Planet K location.

Attempts to reach Kleinman Monday evening were not successful.

In July 2012, Texas Department of Transportation officials told Auspro to take the sign down, saying it was illegal because it was outside the allowed time for a political sign. The beautification act allows political signs only 90 days before and 10 days after elections.

When Auspro didn’t move the sign, TxDOT sought to punish the coporation for non-compliance, leading the company to sue on the grounds the state was violating its free speech.

A district court found in favor of TxDOT, but the Third District Court of Appeals reversed that decision.

Free speech protection

TxDOT spokeswoman Veronica Beyer said the agency is reviewing the ruling and consulting with the Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Highway Administration.

“TxDOT does not regulate or restrict content, as TxDOT has regulations that provide protection for freedom of speech,” Beyer said in a statement. “Texas has the most beautiful roadways in the nation, and as such TxDOT only wishes to further maintain the safety to the traveling public without restricting peoples’ constitutional rights.”

Citing other restrictions on signs and previous court rulings, the appeals court struck down subchapters B and C of the beautification act, which are the centerpiece of the law. Essentially, the court ruled Texas’ law relies on exemptions that differ based on the content of the sign, which is unconstitutional.

“The Texas Act, as both (TxDOT) and the Texas Supreme Court have acknowledged, on its face draws distinctions based on the message a speaker conveys,” appeals court Chief Justice Jeff Rose wrote.

Rather than void parts related to political speech, as TxDOT sought during the case, the appeals court said it cannot sever one type of sign from another and deemed TxDOT’s total authority of signs unconstitutional.

“We strongly disagree with the interpretation the court has come up with,” said Anne Culver, president of Scenic Houston, a local version of the statewide group.

Houston, and many Texas highways, was once littered with billboards and other ads, drawing ire from many, former first lady Lady Bird Johnson among them, who worried the state’s natural splendor was being ruined by shaving cream ads and other roadway announcements.

Though many point to signheavy areas of Houston and Harris County — FM 1960 is among the most oft-cited — many of those who’ve lived in the region 30 years or more remember even more signs spread across the horizon.

Culver noted while reasonable exceptions have been made, the court’s ruling “throws a lot of that completely out the window.”

City ordinances in effect

In cities such as Houston, which adopted a sign ordinance in 1980 during a proliferation of outdoor ads, laws can keeps signs at bay. Houston’s regulations have taken the number of billboards from an estimated 10,500 in 1980 to roughly 1,300 today.

Janice Evans, spokeswoman for Mayor Sylvester Turner, said officials are reviewing the ruling for potential local effects, and what it could mean for efforts to work with companies to remove some billboards in the city.

Houston City Council last month approved an agreement with outdoor advertising company JGI, which removed 13 billboards the company owns around Houston, while allowing four others to remain for another 20 years. The agreement, coordinated with Scenic Houston, is similar to others that have reduced signs around the city.

Smaller cities, meanwhile, have relied on TxDOT’s authority to keep major highways clear, as well as the Federal Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which regulates many types of signs on federal highways.

Supporters of the laws limiting ads were especially stung by the fact that an appeals court in Texas — home to highway beautification champions President Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson — struck the law down.

“It is a little bit of a slap in the face,” said Lloyd, of Scenic Texas, noting she was “aghast a court in Austin would be the one to do this.”