Signs on the dotted lines.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITALGOODS

To detractors, they are "litter on a stick." To supporters, they're effective advertising, a source of jobs and income producers for landowners. Billboards have been the cause of legislative, court and public-relations battles for decades.

Another fight, this one prompted by new technology, is under way at the General Assembly. Billboard owners want to be allowed to upgrade their signs to use electronic technology so that advertisements can change every few seconds. The new digital signs, which look something like giant flat-screen TVs, have popped up along roadways in North Carolina and across the country. Nationally, about 2,400 have been erected the last five years, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

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But some cities have ordinances that bar digital billboards because the existing signs were "grandfathered" and, as nonconforming uses, can't be upgraded. Billboard owners want to change that. Legislation being considered in the state Senate would pre-empt local sign ordinances when they affect billboards built along major highways. The bill would also change the rules on clearing trees along public rights of way, allowing them to be cut 400 feet from signs instead of the current limit of 250 feet.

In Durham, the legislation would gut an existing billboard ban. In Charlotte, a tree ordinance would be undone. The billboard industry has found that it is not only fighting environmental groups--a traditional opponent when it has sought changes--but also local government. Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne is among the critics of the bill. He doesn't believe that legislators in Raleigh should be dictating to locally elected officials how their communities ought to look. Chavonne seems to have some support among the honorables. As the bill was being considered by a Senate committee, Sen. Richard Stevens, a Wake County Republican and former county manager, remarked that legislators appeared to be engaged in micromanaging local affairs. Critics also question the safety of the new technology, saying it can distract drivers. Digital billboards would be allowed to change every eight seconds, though state law prevents live video and scrolling.

The jury is still out on whether the changing messages distract drivers. A 2007 study by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute financed by the billboard industry says they don't. A review of several studies by the American Association of State Highway and...