MAYBE YOU have noticed it — the billboards along Illinois' interstate and primary highways in rural areas are coming down. But slowly. Congress, urged on by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Ladybird, passed the original federal billboard law in 1965, and an Illinois law was passed that same year. Now the target date for completing removal of unlawful signs in Illinois is 1979.
The reason given for taking so long is economy. Nearly all sign removal is being handled by highway maintenance crews when they are not busy on priority work, such as pavement and bridge repair or removing safety hazards, according to Allen A. Austin. As chief of the Highway Division's Bureau of Land Acquisition, Austin is in general charge of the billboard removal program. But even so, the total cost in Illinois is expected to come to $30 million (three-fourths of it in federal funds, one- fourth in state funds).
The removal program involves 48,808 signs. Almost all of 21,987 signs have been removed because they weren't registered by their owners, who apparently considered they were not worth the $5 registration fee. Another 21,804 signs were registered. Of these, 12,543 were found to be nonconforming and subject to removal and, in fact, 4,809 had been taken down by March 1. By that date the state had also purchased 6,555 of the Other nonconforming signs and will remove them. But, the signs cost the state $6.7 million or nearly $1,020 per sign. Federal law requires that when a registered sign is removed, its owner must be compensated.
An additional 5,000 signs which direct motorists to public and private facilities such as churches, parks, schools, and areas of historic or scenic interest are allowed to remain. Finally, there are about 2,200 official signs along the highways for traffic control or announcing such needed services as lodging, fuel or food.
Illinois' present billboard law is the Highway Advertising Control Act of 1971, found in Illinois Revised Statutes (1975), chapter 121, "Roads and Bridges," beginning at section 501. Last year Congress and the Illinois legislature both expanded the program to include the regulation of the tall signs erected in recent years more than 660 feet from the highways so as to circumvent the original 660-foot limit. The Illinois law is Public Act 79-1009, sponsored by Rep. E. M. Barnes (D., Chicago) and Sen. Robert J. Egan (D., Chicago) and signed into law by Gov. Dan Walker last fall. Any state which fails to follow the federal lead on billboard control risks a penalty of the loss of 10 per cent of the state's federal highway aid. Had Illinois failed to act, the state could have lost $32 million.
The law now forbids signs resembling an official traffic sign or device; signs painted on rocks or other natural features; structurally unsafe signs or those in disrepair; lighted signs that impair the vision of a driver; and signs that obscure the driver's vision of an intersection or official sign or traffic device. The only permitted signs in rural areas along interstate or primary highways are directional and official signs, signs advertising the sale or lease of the property on which they are located, and signs advertising activities conducted on the property. These also must not violate any of the other restrictions in the law. Most signs in cities can remain unless they violate these restrictions. The billboard control program does not apply to secondary or county roads or nonfederal-aid routes, but because such roads have less traffic, they attract fewer signs.
August 1976/ Illinois Issues/ 13