First Posted: 6/22/2012

RALEIGH — The North Carolina House Environment Committee has approved a bill that seeks to amend a much-debated billboard law from last session.

A law that gave billboard companies authority to cut more trees around their signs would be weakened under the proposal, with more control returned to local governments. The measure has been written into a pre-existing Senate bill in the hopes to pass it during the short session.

The bill had bipartisan support in the committee. It was introduced by Rep. Becky Carney, D-Charlotte, and supported by Rep. Ruth Samuelson, R-Mecklenburg. Proponents argued that municipalities should be able to choose how much to clear.

At one point the discussion devolved into what North Carolinians would rather look at, trees or billboards.

Committee members ultimately moved the proposal forward by way of a split voice vote, and the measure is expected to make it to the House floor next week. The new law would allow municipalities a 30-day review of proposed clear-cutting and a say in how vegetation is replanted.

Environmental groups said the proposal was surprising, but welcomed.

“We’re glad the Legislature is revisiting the issue,” said Molly Diggins, state director of the North Carolina Sierra Club. “The bill that passed last year ran roughshod over local governments.”

Last year’s law went into effect March 1 and permits companies to cut trees within 380 feet around billboards on state roads in rural areas, an increase from 250 feet. The state Transportation Department estimated up to 200,000 trees, or about 2,000 acres, were affected by the increase.

The bill received considerable pushback from Republican Rep. William Brawley, R-Mecklenburg. He voiced concerns about municipalities being able to override state law.

“Local governments had been exceeding their authority on these trees for a number of years,” Brawley said. “…Essentially what we’re doing with this is giving cities the power to overrule what the state is doing, and I think that’s a bigger question than this billboard thing and I’m very uncomfortable with this.”