The Florida Senate

479.27  Highway beautification and tourism promotion pilot project.--

(1)  The Legislature finds that Interstate Highway 75 is used extensively by tourists and other visitors to reach their ultimate vacation, recreation, and business destinations in Florida. The Legislature further finds that these tourists and business visitors contribute significantly to the state's tax revenue base and to general economic growth, and encouraging such visitors to Florida is a public purpose in the best interest of the state's citizens. It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a program within the Department of Transportation to enhance the scenic and natural beauty of this corridor as a pilot project to give visitors to the state a more favorable impression of Florida and thereby encourage return visits. Consistent with this intent, the department is directed to develop and implement a pilot program based upon the criteria set forth in this section.

(2)  The Interstate Highway 75 corridor from the Florida-Georgia state boundary to its intersection with the Florida Turnpike at Wildwood is hereby designated as a highway beautification and tourism promotion pilot project.

(3)  The department shall develop a corridor management plan with beautification and tourism promotion goals for the project corridor in accordance with this section. The plan shall, at a minimum, address the following:

(a)  Vegetation management to encourage the growth of trees, shrubs, wild flowers, and other native vegetation, with the participation of local governments and private parties or organizations. The department shall establish standards for vegetation management plans to encourage the growth of compatible plants which allow reasonable visibility of sign facings while screening sign structural supports, and to allow for the planting of new trees and vegetation in other locations on the right-of-way to replace plants damaged due to cutting or trimming.

(b)  Removal and relocation, through incentive programs, of nonconforming signs along the corridor and designation of areas where signs will be deemed to be conforming and where a sign can be relocated in exchange for the elimination of at least two signs at other locations, and encouragement of joint agreements with local governments to encourage such relocation incentive programs to promote the implementation of the pilot program.

(c)  Maximizing the use of the logo program along the corridor, and encouraging the development of other methods, such as radio broadcasts, to communicate tourist and motorist information.

(4)  The department, in conjunction with local governments and outdoor advertising and other interested representatives, shall additionally develop a recommended program to implement pilot project goals for presentation to the Legislature on or before January 15, 1997, including a comprehensive incentive relocation program to encourage the removal and relocation of signs on the pilot program corridor and throughout the state. In preparing its recommendation, the department shall consider, but not be limited to, the following considerations:

(a)  The intent shall be to reduce the total number of nonconforming outdoor advertising signs and limit state right-of-way acquisition costs for nonconforming signs by establishing a manner in which county and municipal regulations may be waived, the provisions of ss. 479.15(1) and 479.155 notwithstanding, to permit sign relocations in exchange for the removal of other signs when it is determined to be in the public interest to do so.

(b)  Incentives should encourage changes to make nonconforming signs conforming and the relocation of nonconforming signs to conforming locations in exchange for removal of other nonconforming signs within the pilot project corridor, as well as permitting the relocation of signs in other areas of Florida in a similar manner thereby avoiding the expenditure of state road construction funds that might otherwise be necessary to acquire the signs. Such exchange, as nearly as practicable, shall be equitably apportioned based upon the size and location of said signs.

(c)  Upon completion of the recommended proposal, the department shall determine the feasibility of obtaining federal approval for implementing the proposal. Upon receipt of any required federal approval and the enactment of required legislation to implement the program, the department shall not issue any new outdoor advertising permits for signs visible from the pilot program corridor unless such permit is conditioned upon the sign owner removing two nonconforming signs and surrendering the permits therefor to the department for cancellation.

History.--s. 7, ch. 96-201.