‘Price we pay.’ Why 2024 NC law is to blame for this treeless roadside in Charlotte
Vince Chelena has worried about the billboard outside his office building for over a decade.
Each day, he stands near the Adams Outdoor Advertising billboard along Irwin Creek to smoke a cigarette and watches as the vegetation along the creek slowly disappears.
Clear-cutting around the billboard has steadily increased over the years, Chelena said, with contractors at first just trimming branches and leaves for visibility, then cutting down entire trees. This year, Chelena said he watched as contractors cut down all trees and vegetation on the right-of-way within 500 feet of the billboard.
Now, the banks along Irwin Creek off I-77 by his office are completely bare except for the tree stumps, twigs and leaves left behind in the last cutting, and the few trees on his own property. And it’s not the only place where workers are clearing larger swaths of vegetation.
Billboard companies are well within their rights to chop down all the plants in the area, said Ryke Longest, a Duke University environmental sciences and policy professor who previously served on the board of Scenic America. Last year, the North Carolina legislature passed a state law that increased the amount of clear-cutting allowed by outdoor advertisers. Under the new law, billboard companies can completely clear the area on a state right-of-way up to 500 feet from the sign. The previous law allowed up to 380 feet of cutting near roads that exceed 35 mile-per-hour limits.
But clear-cutting can pose environmental and safety risks, particularly when done along a waterway, Longest said. And taxpayers may be responsible for funding the solutions.
Adams Outdoor Advertising did not respond to multiple requests for comment via email and phone. One of the bill’s primary sponsors, Republican Rep. Brenden Jones, declined to comment.
Jonathan Rand, public information officer for NCDOT, told the Observer Adams got a permit from the department that’s allowed by state law. A fine is imposed in the event contractors cut beyond the permitted area, Rand said.
Rand declined to speak specifically about the stability of Irwin Creek, but said the department monitors erosion of urban streams near roadways and addresses any issues that could lead to road damage.
Environmental and safety risks
Trees along roads are important because they provide noise barriers for nearby buildings, reduce air pollution, provide a habitat for wildlife and help water infiltrate aquifers, Longest said.
“Billboards themselves don’t really add a lot of value to the average driver,” he said. “They just provide a form of distraction, and the price we pay for it is that we lose our trees and we lose the services that they provide to the environment around them.”
Along a creek, trees are even more important, he said. There, they reduce water contamination from roadway debris and prevent erosion. Removing trees along creeks could lead to road instability, he said, and taxpayers ultimately shoulder the costs of roadway repairs through the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The state has slowly offered more leeway to billboard companies over the years, Longest said. For a while, billboard companies could only prune trees and branches to maintain visibility. But about a decade ago, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law that allowed them to clear-cut trees around billboards. Last year’s law allowed an even larger area to be cut down.
Billboard companies have little stake in protecting the land around the signs, since the public right-of-ways are managed by the state, Longest said. If anything were to happen to a roadway or a public waterway, taxpayers would ultimately fund the repairs
TJ Bugbee, executive director of the N.C. Outdoor Advertising Association, told the News & Observer last year the new law would prevent trees from blocking billboards.
“We’ve got some billboards that are completely blocked by vegetation when you’re driving up on them,” he said. “And we’ve heard from a lot of our advertisers that a tree is in the way of a billboard and there’s nothing they can do about it.”
The reality in Charlotte has involved clearing all vegetation, trees or otherwise, and leaving behind mulch.
Complaints
Chelena, partial owner of the Crane Company Building at 1307 W Morehead Street, said his biggest worries about the clear-cutting are road safety, the cost of repairs and environmental impact.
“This last time they came through and ran heavy equipment and just grinded up everything,” he said.
Chelena said he has seen significant erosion on Irwin Creek over time. Since the company cut earlier this year, he’s spotted a growing depression in the ground. He’s spoken to lawmakers, Adams employees, Charlotte Stormwater and NCDOT, but hasn’t seen changes in the area, he said.
A few weeks ago, an Adams employee visited the site, he said, and apologized for cutting down some trees on Chelena’s property rather than the right-of-way.
Chelena provided the Observer with a NCDOT email saying the clear-cutting hasn’t created roadway safety or erosion problems, but he said he believed it’s only a matter of time.
“We’re a couple of real strong tropical storms or a hurricane from, you know, this becoming a bigger and bigger problem,” he said. “It’s going to cost more.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
