GOVERNOR'S VETO

March 26, 2007

TO THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES:

HOUSE BILL NO. 2128

Pursuant to Article V, Section 6, of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto House Bill 2128, which would allow relocations of billboards, without regard to the local zoning ordinance, when a billboard is displaced by highway construction.

This legislation would take away local governments’ regulatory power over billboards and give billboards a preferred status among other types of property.  I am reluctant to strip communities of the power to fairly regulate billboards as they regulate other properties.

Accordingly, I am vetoing this bill.