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The City of Reno is well known for its beautiful mountain surroundings. Can you tell that from looking at the above photograph?

Billboard companies like to win you over with clever PSA messages like the one pictured above; however, there are more appropriate venues for this kind of message that do not create visual pollution. Chances are they want your good will for a reason.

Our downtown areas are full of interesting architecture and historic destinations. How appetizing does this look to your senses? To a tourist's senses?

Many billboards fall into neglect or disrepair based upon the needs of the market. A skyline polluted by a feast of advertising is terrible enough, but we have to deal with their leftovers too?

The Best Approach

TODS, or Tourist-Oriented Directional Signs, are compact and concise alternatives to the billboard. TODS gives motorists a wealth of information without contributing to visual pollution.

Billboard and Sign Control

A community's history, culture, geography, and scenic qualities often form the backbone of civic pride. More and more, however, our communities and major highways look exactly the same, and billboards are one of the major culprits. Billboards blot out the natural beauty and architecture of communities, assets that should be highlighted, not hidden behind ugly billboards.

See our history to learn what we've accomplished on this topic! See our photo gallery to see examples of billboards that pose problems to a Scenic Nevada. Download the Reno Billboard Inventory available in Microsoft Excel format!

Billboards are often the leading edge of ugly sprawling development.

As rural areas are opened to new development, advertisers often move in to target new audiences, blighting the landscape with billboards.

Thirty-seven states fail to protect unzoned and rural areas, allowing companies to litter the countryside with signs; and 23 states permit billboard companies to cut down trees to improve the visibility of billboards.

Strict billboard control allows citizens, instead of billboard companies, to govern their visual environment. Tough controls allow a community to protect its landscape, build civic pride, and encourage investment in the local economy.

Improving Communities with Billboard Control
Communities don't have to live with billboard blight. Across the country, citizens and local officials have worked together to fight the billboard industry and protect their communities. Using the following strategies, community organizations can preserve and enhance their local environment.

Community Education
Informing people of the value of billboard control, especially its beneficial effect on local economies and tourism spending, is one of the best ways to build community support for fighting billboard blight. Studies have repeatedly shown that scenic areas and beautiful communities are the places where people most want to live, work, and visit. Some common types of educational outreach include speaking to community and business groups, publishing articles in your local newspaper, and holding community workshops.

Voluntary Measures
Beautification projects are a good way to fight billboard blight, build civic pride, encourage investment, and attract tourism. Volunteer efforts to reclaim beauty and restore local character encourage citizens to take pride in their area by refusing to use billboards for commercial or public service advertising; urging landowners near roadways and commercial centers not to permit billboards on their property; and establishing an awards program to recognize people who have worked to rid their community of billboard blight.

Incentives
Incentives can provide significant motivation for improving local appearance and encouraging people to fight billboard blight. Small grants to community groups undertaking beautification projects, low advertising rates on billboard alternatives like logo signs or tourist-oriented directional signs (TODS), and tax breaks for landowners who agree to keep their property billboard-free can make a big difference in how a community looks.

Regulatory Measures
Every community working to permanently end billboard blight should first pass a temporary moratorium on all new billboard construction to make sure that the problem doesn't get any worse. During the moratorium, your local government can pass an ordinance that simply prohibits new billboard construction, as well as the relocation or rebuilding of existing billboards. Over time, there will be a gradual loss of billboards as development forces some billboards out of existing sites, while others fall into disrepair and must be removed.

Your community should also enact legislation to promote alternatives to billboard advertising such as logo signs and tourist-oriented directional signs (TODS). Logo signs and TODS display only essential traveler information and are smaller, less obtrusive, more affordable, and easier to read than billboards. Logo signs advertise gas, food, camping, and lodging at nearby highway exits. TODS are used on non-interstate highways and supply information about local tourist attractions, such as distances and directions.