Utah’s Scenic Byway 12 curves with the contours of the southern Utah desert. The famous road takes the long way, connecting Panguitch and Torrey by way of Bryce Canyon City, Escalante and Boulder. Visitors behind the wheel can enjoy 123 miles of orange slick rock, pine groves and dramatic declines into deep canyons.
What’s absent from these breathtaking views?
Billboards.
Generally speaking, outdoor advertising isn’t allowed on scenic byways, which possess scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archaeological or recreational qualities. But critics worry that an upcoming bill would give the billboard industry more influence over these roads.
For 25 years, the Utah Scenic Byway Program has helped local communities plan and promote scenic byways. Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, would add “one representative from the outdoor advertising industry” to the Scenic Byway Committee. Harper is the longest-serving lawmaker in the Utah Legislature and is running for reelection this year.
Currently, local governments nominate roads to designate or remove from scenic byway status, and their proposals go to the Scenic Byway Committee for review. The committee also reviews segmentation requests, which are made by local governments to “segment,” or exclude, a portion of a scenic byway from scenic byway status. Segmentation can occur on stretches of scenic byways near commercial or industrial areas.
Billboards can only be placed on the segmented portions of these roads.
“This scenic byway bill is an effort to get a few more [billboards] up on scenic byways, where they’re currently prohibited,” said Kate Kopischke, director of Scenic Utah, a nonprofit that works to “promote policies that encourage community engagement, protect and enhance scenic beauty, and limit visual pollution.”
The legislation would also reduce the number of Scenic Byway Committee members and have the committee meet on a temporary, as-needed basis.
Nate Sechrest, a lobbyist for Reagan Outdoor Advertising, said that local governments will remain in control of scenic byways.
“Changing the Scenic Byway Committee makeup doesn’t impact whether or not a new billboard will be built whatsoever, because that is in the discretion of the local city,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune.
“We are one of the industries impacted by [scenic byway] regulations,” Sechrest continued. “The Legislature feels like people who are impacted by regulation should at least have a voice in making sure that those regulations are rational, well-thought-out and consider all the different perspectives.”
Appointed representatives from the Utah Office of Tourism, the Utah Department of Transportation, the Utah League of Cities and Towns and each county where a scenic byway is located or proposed would join the outdoor advertising representative on the restructured Scenic Byway Committee.
The committee now has 12 members who represent the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Highway Administration, Utah Department of Transportation and more stakeholders.
“It was decided to include a member of the outdoor advertising industry as they are an affected party when routes are designated as scenic byways,” Harper wrote to The Tribune in an email.
Harper wrote that the Scenic Byway Committee is too large and that reducing its members and making it temporary would improve the committee’s focus and purpose.
The bill would also make it so the proposed designation or removal of a scenic byway cannot go into effect until the Legislature passes a joint resolution saying so.
Kopischke said that if the Legislature wanted to ensure that all stakeholders were represented on the Scenic Byway Committee, “either kick them off of it or put [Scenic Utah] on it alongside the outdoor advertising industry.”
“People come here to see Utah’s natural beauty,” Kopischke said. “They don’t come here to see billboards. They take scenic byways to see the scenery, not advertising.”
The outdoor advertising industry has made significant contributions to Utah political campaigns, including those for the state legislature.
The Tribune found that between 2015 and 2019, Reagan Outdoor Advertising donated almost $825,000 in direct contributions and donated billboard space to political candidates in Utah. Since 2020, the company has contributed over $221,500 to election committees and campaigns.
“Billboards are an important part of the local economy,” Sechrest said. “They drive tax revenue, they drive people into businesses, they help small businesses succeed. They’re an important piece of what makes our economy function.”
