House Passes Billboard Brightness Bill

Spurred by public opposition to a blinding blinking billboard on New Haven’s Whalley Avenue, state legislators voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that would allow cities and towns to regulate the illumination of public advertisements, so long as those signs have the technological ability to calibrate their own brightness.

That was the result of Wednesday afternoon’s debate on the floor of the Connecticut General Assembly in Hartford. House Bill 5515, which would empower local zoning commissions throughout the state to regulate the brightness and illumination of advertising signs and billboards, passed with a vote of 129 in favor, 18 against, and 3 not voting.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The House bill passed only after New Haven Democratic Rep. Pat Dillon, the sponsor, helped lead the drafting and inclusion of a clarifying amendment that exempts signs that do not have the technological capability for their owners to adjust the signs’ brightness.

The bill had been ​“temporarily passed” by a procedural motion in the General Assembly earlier in the day after Republican critics grilled Dillon and Bridgeport Democrat Steven Stafstrom about about its potential negative impact on existing properties and future business in the state.

Dillon took the lead in drafting and sponsoring the bill after Westville residents were taken aback by the sudden appearance of a 230-square-foot, double sided electronic billboard put up in BD Food Market and Deli’s parking lot at 1057 Whalley Ave, at the intersection of Whalley Avenue and Emerson Street.

The billboard, which is owned and operated by the Southington-based company Advertex, LLC, was put up as of right: that is, within the current guidelines of state and city law.

While investigating how best to prevent the future construction of similar electronic billboards, Dillon and city legislators advocated for HB 5515, which would allow local zoning commissions to regulate such signs’ brightness and illumination, in addition to their height, size and location.

During Wednesday’s General Assembly debate, Stafstrom, who represents Bridgeport, took questions from critical Republicans about how this legislation might affect existing billboards, if at all.

“If a municipality determines that an existing billboard is too bright,” asked Naugatuck Republican Rosa Remimbas, ​“does that prevent the user from being able to use the billboard, if they’re not able to reduce its light?”

“This is merely an enabling statute that would allow the local municipality to adopt local ordinances that may be appropriate for that town regarding the brightness of a billboard,” Stafstrom responded. He said that the bill is only designed to let local cities and towns pass their own laws regarding brightness and illumination; it is not imposing any particular standards on them.

He said that this bill does not specifically target any existing billboards, like the BD Market one. However, he said, if an existing billboard would be out of compliance with local legislation, then the billboard’s owners would likely have to work with the town legislators to get their property grandfathered in.

Doug Dubitsky, a Republican who represents the towns of Canterbury, Chaplin, Franklin, Hampton, Lebanon, Lisbon, Norwich, Scotland, and Sprague, said this law would not necessarily infringe upon the legal prohibition on ​“spot” zoning (i.e. using zoning legislation to specifically target individual properties), but that it may brush up against the concept of ​“pre-existing, non-conforming uses.”

He said that he was concerned that the proposed legislation’s verbiage of ​“brightness and illumination” was too vague, and may inadvertently affect not just the form, but the content of an advertisement.

“I do not see this amendment allowing a municipality to regulate the content, verbiage, images, and the like that may be able to be put on a billboard,” Stafstrom responded. ​“This merely is limited to the brightness and illumination.”

Dillon said that, although some towns and cities have already passed local legislation regulating the brightness and illumination of ads and billboards, this new bill will provide legal protection for those existing laws and will allow more cities and towns, like New Haven, to embark on their own legislation.

The amended bill now passes along to the state Senate for a vote before it can be adopted as state law.

The 2018 Agenda

Bill #	Status	Summary	Sponsors
HB 5001	In Committee Died on the Floor	To impose a fee on transactions involving virtual currency.	Pat Dillon
HB 5031 SB 4	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed Gov. Signed	To allow students to have equal access to institutional financial aid.	Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee
HB 5082	In Committee Committee Approved Died on the Floor	To provide state funds to assist hurricane victims from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who are living in Connecticut.	Juan Candelaria
HB 5126	In Committee Died on the Floor	To increase funding to boards of education and family resource centers that provide assistance to students and families from Puerto Rico.	Juan Candelaria
HB 5112	In Committee Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To permit the retail sale of marijuana and tax such sale to raise revenue for the General Fund and to fund substance abuse treatment, prevention, education and awareness programs.	Juan R. Candelaria, Angel Arce, Josh Elliott, Steven J. Stafstrom, Jeff Currey, Susan M. Johnson, Chris Soto, Patricia A. Dillon, Roland J. Lemar, James M. Albis, Christopher Rosario, Kim Rose, Robyn A. Porter, Edwin Vargas, Matthew Lesser, Gregory Haddad, Joshua Malik Hall, Ezequiel Santiago, Diana S. Urban, Toni E. Walker, Robert Sanchez, Alphonse Paolillo
SB 1	In Committee Died on the Floor	To expand the sick leave program to provide earned family and medical leave to certain individuals employed in this state.	Martin M. Looney, Bob Duff, Timothy D. Larson, Steve Cassano, Beth Bye, Terry B. Gerratana, Gary A. Winfield, Ted Kennedy, Catherine A. Osten, Marilyn V. Moore, Edwin A. Gomes, Mae Flexer
SB 62	In Committee Died on the Floor	To provide tuition-free community college for Connecticut residents.	Martin M. Looney
HB 5182	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To require building officials in certain municipalities to establish and assess a fee for the commencement of certain work without a necessary permit.	Planning and Development Committee
HB 5210	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To (1) mandate insurance coverage of essential health benefits, (2) expand mandated health benefits for women, children and adolescents, and (3) expand mandated contraception benefits.	Insurance and Real Estate Committee
HB 5084	In Committee Died on the Floor	To encourage the recycling of nip bottles that otherwise frequently litter urban areas.	Roland J. Lemar and Juan R. Candelaria
HB 5350 HB 5537	In Committee Committee Denied Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To create a pilot program for shared solar facilities at municipal airports. The bill also would delete the provision that dictates the length of Tweed Airport’s runway.	Energy and Technology Committee
HB 5475	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To amend statutory provisions concerning a police officer’s viewing of a recording from body-worn recording equipment under certain circumstances.	Judiciary Committee
HB 5515	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To permit a zoning commission to regulate the brightness and illumination of advertising signs and billboards.	Judiciary Committee
HB 5540	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor	To ban guns without serial numbers and regulate those which are sold in a form requiring the purchaser to finish assembly or that are homemade and to permit local authorities to interview immediate family members as part of a determination of an applicant’s suitability.	Judiciary Committee
HB 5542	In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed	To ban the sale or transfer, possession, manufacturing or use of bump stocks or other accessories to increase the rate of fire of a firearm.	Judiciary Committee