Nine-Story Billboards Coming to Texas?
A proposed rule could be adopted later this year by the Texas Department of Transportation and allow billboards 85 feet tall in the state.
An issue that has cropped up several times in recent years is back once again: whether the existing maximum height of a billboard in Texas, 42.5 feet, should be increased. A proposed rule from the Texas Department of Transportation would permit them to be 85 feet tall, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News reported this week.
Scenic Texas, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Houston, is concerned about the proposal. An alert on its website bearing the name of Vice President Margaret Lloyd calls it an "urgent problem" and warns readers: "Every billboard along a federal highway in Texas is scheduled to double in height to 85 feet under TxDOT’s proposed rules.. UNLESS there is an overwhelming show of public support to keep billboards at their current height of 42.5 feet. And the TxDoT Commissioners are being flooded with billboard industry letters asking that they be allowed to raise their billboards to unlimited heights!!! Even if you have written before, we need you to write again—in fact, we need each person receiving this alert to write within the next 10 days so every opinion will be counted as part of the official public record. This is our LAST and ONLY opportunity to possibly stop this outrage… no second chances!
The alert says the deadline for comments to TxDOT about the proposed rule is 5 p.m. on Oct. 16.