March 27, 2026

See attached PDF

March 24, 2026
The Honorable Tony Evers
Governor of Wisconsin
P. O. Box 7863
Madison, Wisconsin 53707

RE: Request for Veto of AB 502, Nonconforming Outdoor Advertising Signs

Dear Governor Evers,
The Board of Directors of Scenic Wisconsin strongly opposes Assembly Bill 502 and requests thar you veto the bill. AB 502 creates a special status for outdoor advertising signs (billboards) under Wisconsin’s eminent domain law. It also allows billboards that are non-conforming under local ordinances to be relocated if they are affected by transportation projects.

The Scenic Wisconsin Board is in a unique position to offer informed comment on these kinds of legislation. We organized in 2000 as an affiliate of Scenic America, and we have closely followed legislation affecting billboards for 25 years.

We believe AB 502 is not in the public’s interest. We believe the whole premise of the bill is misguided. By changing the eminent domain statutes to give greater advantages to the owners of  billboards, it punishes local communities for enacting sign ordinances that place limits on billboards or bans them entirely. This will likely increase the cost and difficulty of dealing with  billboards, and put other impacted property owners at an unfair disadvantage.

State law allows municipalities to determine specific requirements for billboards that reflect their own community values. These include height limits, size limits, setback requirements, spacing requirements and limits on lighting. Local ordinances have saved the state and other funding sources money by avoiding costly billboard buyouts. Communities should be thanked, not  punished.

In addition, AB 502 undermines the meaning of a non-conforming sign, by allowing it to be moved within a community, while retaining its non-conforming status. Many billboards would be  upgraded or replaced in the process of relocations, resulting in new and improved, so called, ‘non-conforming’ signs. The billboard industry wants to move billboards around for its own benefit,  with little or no consideration of the impact on nearby property owners or on the municipality.

Hundreds of billboards are on leased lands. Those leases function like easements, yet they are not recorded and transparent like other encumbrances on land. There are parcels that property owners would like to develop and improve but cannot because of a controlling billboard lease. Yet AB 502 does nothing to address this problem.

We have included with this letter the testimony from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities presented at the November 12, 2025, public hearing. The League’s testimony does an excellent job of analyzing AB 502’s impact on the eminent domain statutes and the negative impacts the bill will have on municipalities throughout the state. In addition, we have also attached the professional analysis of the bill by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, dated November 19, 2025, as well as testimony from Scenic America.

We respectfully urge a veto of AB 502.

Respectfully,
Scenic Wisconsin Board Members
Gary Goyke, Madison, President.
Charles Mitchell, Wauwatosa, Founder
Shirley Brabender Mattox, Oshkosh
Jason Hass, Milwaukee
Scott Becher, Neenah
Jay Salinas, Reedsburg
Rich Eggleston, Fitchburg
Charles Clemence, La Crosse
Vernie Smith, Viroqua

March 12, 2026

The Honorable Tony Evers
Governor of Wisconsin
P. O. Box 7863
Madison, Wisconsin  53707

RE:      Request for Veto of SB 525, Removal of Vegetation Obstructing Outdoor Advertising Signs

Dear Governor Evers,

            Scenic Wisconsin strongly opposes Senate Bill 525 and requests your veto of that legislation.  SB 525 significantly changes the process for vegetation removal for billboard visibility.  We believe SB 525 would do lasting damage to the state’s ability to responsibly care for and maintain public highway right-of-way, and would further undermine the state’s highway beautification laws.

            Scenic Wisconsin is in a unique position to offer informed comment on this kind of legislation.  Organized in 2000 as an affiliate of Scenic America, we have closely followed billboard bills: opposing the bad ones and advocating for legislation that advances Wisconsin’s scenery.  We have the institutional memory to constructively analyze bills within the context of Wisconsin’s highway beautification efforts.

            We would draw your attention to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) November 5, 2025 testimony opposing SB 525, which we have included with this letter.  The DOT’s well-reasoned position paper clearly lays out the problems with the bill.

            Here are the main reasons that Scenic Wisconsin opposes Senate Bill 525:

• The off-premises sign industry wants to clear-cut public right-of-way solely for billboard visibility. This fails to take into account other stakeholders.  They feel that a 500-foot viewing window belongs solely to them.  Other owners of highway frontage are not taken into account.  And most importantly, there is no inherent right of a structure (in this case a billboard) to be seen or fully exposed to highway viewing.   
• The industry wants to have permits last in perpetuity – and apply retroactively. SB 525 would allow the billboard owner to get a permit once for a site, then never have to get one again.  And the bill would allow permits to be retroactive to 2012 and allow billboard owners to clear-cut that right-of-way with little to no DOT oversight.
• The industry wants to do it speculatively. This would allow billboard operators to scope out sites, get permits to clear-cut the public trees and vegetation and then construct billboards on previously unviewable sites. This could open up many new sites for billboards.   
• The industry wants to clear-cut highway medians for billboard visibility. The bill would allow for cross viewing, providing a viewing window that can include vegetation between highway lanes, regardless of width or purpose.

            In addition to the implications for safety and DOT’s ability to maintain its right-of-way, trees and vegetation provide other benefits for the public: beauty, erosion control, windbreaks, protection from headlight glare and other light intrusions, and sound and sight mitigation for neighboring properties.  The bill ignores other stakeholders.  Only the billboard owner matters.  

            Prior to 2005, the DOT handled vegetation requests through its State Highway Maintenance Manual (78.00 Vegetation Alteration for Site Exposure) – where we felt it should have remained.  Since 2005, there have been legislative changes that have diminished DOT’s ability to fully regulate these requests in order to accommodate concerns of the billboard industry.  These changes include 2005 Act 465, which created s.84.305, Stats., as well as 2011 Act 230 and 2013 Act 231 that amended the subsection at the request of the billboard industry.

            If SB 525 is allowed to become law it will further degrade the DOT’s ability to manage public right-of-way, with lasting negative consequences.  We urge a veto.

Thank you for your consideration of these comments. 

Respectfully,

Scenic Wisconsin Board Members 

            Gary Goyke, Madison, President.                  Charles Mitchell, Wauwatosa, Founder
            Shirley Brabender Mattox, Oshkosh              Jason Hass, Milwaukee
            Scott Becher, Neenah                                     Jay Salinas, Reedsburg
            Rich Eggleston, Fitchburg                              Charles Clemence, La Crosse
            Vernie Smith, Viroqua

TO:                        All Wisconsin Legislators

FROM:                 Charlie Mitchell, Founder, Scenic Wisconsin

                              Gary R. Goyke, President of Scenic Wisconsin Board of Directors

RE:                        Opposition to Billboard Bills (AB 502/SB 497 and AB 521/SB 525)

DATE:                   January 5, 2026

Scenic Wisconsin is opposed to pending legislation that would substantially change state law relating to regulation of billboards. This letter lays out the reasons for our opposition.

• AB 502 & SB 497, relating to outdoor advertising signs that are affected by transportation-related projects

Companion bills AB 502 and SB 497 would allow outdoor advertising signs, commonly known as billboards, which need to be removed to make way for highway reconstruction such as widening, to be transferred to a place elsewhere in the community. Billboards could be relocated by the billboard owner even if the billboard does not conform to local ordinances. This process of relocating undermines local community efforts at highway beautification.

Additionally, the bills would require that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation pay the cost of relocating a billboard whenever a public project affects the billboard’s visibility. This measure will raise the cost of highway projects and taxpayers will bear the additional expense.

The bills also provide that billboards be evaluated separately from other buildings that may need to be removed at the same time because of a highway project. This special treatment gives the billboard owner an advantage to gain a higher buy-out amount in the condemnation process, and taxpayers bear the expense.  We are in agreement with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities testimony opposing these bills.  (For your convenience, we will send the League’s testimony to you via email.)

• AB 521 & SB 525 relating to removal of vegetation obstructing outdoor advertising signs

Companion bills AB 521 and SB 525 would allow clear cutting of trees and shrubs on the public right-of-way along our major highways to provide better views of outdoor advertising signs. Clear cutting would be allowed for a distance of 500 feet along the roadway near the sign.

However, trees and shrubs are valuable assets that provide safety benefits to motorists that use the highways. This vegetation is paid for by taxpayers.  Under management of the state Department of Transportation, trees are used as snow, wind and light screens. Trees reduce erosion and help prevent flooding. Trees are planted by the DOT to serve as living snow fences. While the billboard owner would pay $300 per tree that is part of a snow fence that is cut down, it is not good public policy to be cutting down snow fences.

Other provisions of these bills are objectionable because they reduce supervision of tree removal by the DOT. The sign owner would need to apply only once, then will have permission to cut trees whenever they want in the future. Now the owner must apply each time they want to remove vegetation and do it in close coordination with the DOT.  We do not believe it best to change the state statutes but rather to potentially work through the administrative rule process.

For greater details about the impact of these bills, please see the DOT testimony submitted in opposition to SB 525 in November of 2025.  (For your convenience, we will also send the DOT testimony to you via email.)

Billboard owners have no inherent right to have a sign or billboard be visible from a highway. The purpose of the highway program is public transportation, and it should be managed for that purpose, not as an advertising corridor.

We sincerely request your careful review of these bills and ask that you not adopt them as the session draws to a close. 

The mission of Scenic Wisconsin is to preserve and enhance the visual character of Wisconsin. We believe that America’s scenic heritage is fundamentally important to individual and collective well-being, to economic prosperity, to a healthy ecology, and to the quality of everyday life. Our objectives are to support and promote programs and policies that protect natural beauty in our environment, preserve landscapes and streetscapes, protect historic and cultural symbols such as barns, conserve trees, and improve the appearance of communities.

Scenic Wisconsin is a 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated through advocacy to preserving and enhancing the scenic character of Wisconsin communities and its rural countryside.  You may visit us at www.scenicwisconsin.org or get to know more about us at our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/scenicwisconsin/. 

Read the press release here.