Billboard proliferation started in the 1980s and 90s, especially as the effectiveness of TV advertising diminished and gridlock on the interstate increased in every major metro area. The landmark Highway Beautification Act passed at Lady Bird Johnson’s urging has over the years since passage in the 1960s been eroded. But the general population has been largely ignorant of the changes that have allowed billboard proliferation. New in the early 21st century is digital technology, which allows for multiple images to be projected on billboards, including video. Several northeast states have capped, banned or outlawed billboards – Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island with a cap on billboards is faced now with conversions to digital technology. Luckily Vermont and Maine have little or no remaining billboards. These states have held firm on the goal of protecting scenic views from their roadways.

Cell Towers:

These are sanctioned under federal communications (FCC) law. The use of mobile and cell phones has increased significantly putting cell tower locations in demand. Multiple design capabilities do allow for camouflage and concealment. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has published a guide for concealing cell towers in the towers and steeples of historic buildings, thereby effecting income to maintain the property while providing tower locations. Cell towers have also been disguised as trees. Single wooden pole-mounted cell towers have been effectively masked in forest locations.

Utility Poles and Wires:

Since Federal deregulation of the communications industry, cable and phone companies have proliferated using the existing overhead electric infrastructure. More wires have been located on existing poles resembling the early days of telegraph, telephone, electric wire infrastructure in the late 19th century. The pole technology has not changed much in 100 years, particularly where natural log poles are in use. The end result of deregulation is a spaghetti of utility wires. Dumb apartment buildings, which are not internally wired to accommodate different phone and cable venders for each apartment, add to the effect with multiple wires attached to each corner of the building. Wires, no longer in use, are not removed either from buildings or from the street poles carrying them. Burying utilities has become increasingly more costly, yet innovative financing arrangements are sanctioned in many states, usually with the designation of utility districts where additional revenues are raised locally for installing the wires underground. California has been a leader in this effort. Many communities legislate that in new development projects, utilities must be placed underground, particularly if new access roads are required.

Commercial Franchise Design:

Marketing and retail enterprise has increasingly dictated in the last 3 decades. The move to franchise retailing with the attendant uniform product and building design, combined with sprawl and strip commercial areas has led to the one look fits all nature of the average America retail area, particularly in suburban and exurban areas. Sadly, as a result, everywhere in America increasingly looks much the same and the look is banal and ugly. Planners have been struggling with regulating this phenomenon, but have been unsuccessful, unless strict design/site plan review regulations and zoning are in place. Many developing suburban and exurban areas do not have such zoning or sophistication. Many areas are in regions of the country where strict (mis) interpretation of property rights is an issue.

Smokestack Industry:

While generally in the United States, so-called “smokestack industry” is controlled by local, state and federally regulations to curb air and water pollution, and zoning usually segregates such industry previously developed “industrial zones” away from residential areas, there are significant threats in every region from inappropriate siting. One such example is in the scenic Hudson River Valley in New York, where large and inappropriate cement plants were proposed in the viewshed of Olana, the National Historic Landmark summer home and studio of the 19th century American landscape painter Frederick Church.

Mountain top removal has been a problem in many areas where strip mining for natural resources is competing with second home development. Nuclear power plants have been proposed and built in scenic coastal communities near plentiful sources of water (such as shore locations on the Atlantic Ocean). Wind turbine farms are being built on exposed ridges in scenic mountain and hill locations. They have also been proposed for off shore locations in scenic areas, heavily dependent on beach and boating related recreational tourism for economic development. In all of these situations the siting and design of the development or installation is critical in mitigating the negative impacts to scenic and historic resources.