Shifting Ground: Highway Beautification
Trees vs. Billboards, Osceola, FL September 8, 2008 |
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 See postcards from Osceola County's Highway 192 |
Ever since President Lyndon Johnson signed the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, communities across America have been sprucing up their roadways. They have, in fact, planted spruces, oaks and other trees to create a more appealing scene. But in some places, trees have run up against a powerful opponent: the billboard industry. Osceola County, FL is the site of a story about 16 crape myrtles, four billboards and one road. U.S. Highway 192 runs through the County: a six-lane strip of asphalt just outside Walt Disney World. Families come here to ride go-karts and roller coasters, buy t-shirts and gorge themselves at all-you-can-eat buffets, play mini-golf and take helicopter tours. But back in the 1980s, this tourist strip was losing business to newer, nicer roadways, and the community attempted to change that with a $29 million highway beautification project. The project worked wonders until Clear Channel Outdoor, a company owning billboards along the highway, claimed that the new trees blocked the view of their billboards. Eventually, the state legislature was tasked with sorting out the company's right to place billboards vs. the community's right to plant trees. Should one take precedence over the other? Read more >> |