Congress Hears Cities’ Plight Over Billboards

Agoura Hills Councilwoman Fran Pavley, reflecting on her city’s futile eight-year fight to remove 30 billboards along the Ventura Freeway, told a House subcommittee in Washington Thursday that local governments should be given the clout to banish roadside signs.

Pavley testified before a subcommittee of the House Public Works Committee that the key impediment under current federal law is a requirement that localities compensate billboard companies.

Local governments must reimburse the owner for the sign’s value as well as for the revenues that would be lost by dismantling it. This has allowed the firms to set their own price, which can be as much as $100,000, Pavely said.