Outdoor Advertising is a significant part of Florida’s economy, and plays an important role in providing information to the public. Billboards along Florida’s major State and Federal highways are carefully regulated by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Many local governments have also become active in regulating billboards. Due to these increased regulating schemes there is an ever-increasing need to be aware of the technicalities of the law. Whether a company seeks to create a new billboard or to retain an existing one, state and local requirements impose comprehensive regulations on the erection and maintenance of billboards.

FDOT refers to its billboard regulations as outdoor advertising regulations or ODA regulations. Chapter 479, Florida Statutes, allows local governments to maintain their own regulations, in addition to the FDOT ODA regulations, so that a billboard company may be required to comply with two sets of overlapping regulations.

FDOT ODA regulations limit the locations of billboards adjacent to Federal aid primary and interstate highways through zoning and spacing requirements, and also impose size and height limitations. This is a complex subject that involves evaluations under the local government’s Future Land Use Map and the land use regulations. Chapter 479, Florida Statutes, also requires FDOT to obtain a local government “sign off” on permit applications.

The attorneys in the Firm of Williams Wilson & Sexton are experienced in all aspects of FDOT ODA regulation, as well as local government billboard regulations. The partners are all former FDOT attorneys, and they are experienced in evaluating the statutes, rules and federal regulations that govern when a billboard permit can be issued, as well as the regulations that govern when a permit will be revoked for noncompliance with FDOT ODA regulations. They have brought that experience to this Firm, representing a number of advertising companies in pursuit of new permits and in protecting their current permits.