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~".. ... J .').. ~~-,...; ., ..... I ...,. ~ IIII:IIII~ league of minnesota cities May 2, 1984 Mr. James F. Andre Ci ty Manager 2660 Civic Center Drive Roseville, Minnesota 55113 Dear ~ e; I hope you found your lobbying efforts enlightening and rewarding. Congratulations also on getting St. Paul to provide a smokescreen on the liquor bill. Their problems hide not only the Roseville section but also our township liquor provision. Again I apologize for taking a month to respond to your letter concerning advertising devices. Your city attorney is correct in that the c~ange was hidden. A section (~16) of an omnibus (20 pages printed in session:,laws) transportation bill struck the words lion the interstate system of highways II from the definition of advertising devices. The bill passed early in 1982 and was signed by the governor on March 23, 1982. Because I was still in research at that time I do not know if Duke was aware of the implications of the bill or not. He does not recall the bill, which is understandable. In checking our 1981-82 bulletins, I can find only a brief reference to the bill in one bulletin. In my opinion, this section was likely added sometime after the bill was introduced, but I can't be sure without doing extensive research in the daily legislative journals up at the capitol. Regardless, the section became effective less than a year after Roseville enacted its ordinance. The motivator for changes dealing with advertising devices laws has generally been Naegele and other companies in the advertising business. I do not know if any particular city actions precipitated the change but my guess is that Roseville's action was not unknown to the Naegele people. My feeling is that the legislature would be hesitant to reinsert the deleted language or add language clearly allowing amortization ordinances to be enforced. In order to enact legislation, we would have to convince the legislators that allowing a period of years to elapse prior to removal is sufficient "compensation." I am not totally sure that a convincing argument can be successfully marshalled. We would certainly be faced with active opposition from billboard companies, many of which make significant political contributions. In short,l-don't'believe there is much of a chance to reinsert the language. 183 university avenue east, st, paul, minnesota 551 01 (612) 227-5600