Letter Writing Tips:

• Mention upfront that you are a constituent (i.e., you live in their district).
• Be specific. Discuss specific legislation or steps your elected official can take to combat visual blight and let them know you are watching their actions.  Find your elected officials here. [1]
• Keep it short.
• Use a collaborative, rather than accusatory, tone. We must build partnerships to create change.
• Look beyond just state or national elected leaders. Your list of officials could include:
  • Mayor
  • City council representatives
  • State Representative or Senator
  • PTA/school leaders
  • Leaders of professional associations

A letter to your city council member might look like this:

Dear [name]:

As a resident of Houston, I am eager to see our city combat visual blight. One way to do this is to strengthen the City of Houston Sign Ordinance relating to both on-premise business signs and off-premise signs (billboards).

The following are some ways we can make the city more visually appealing:

• Allow noncommercial messages to be substituted for commercial messages.
• Add a severability clause---if any part or section of the sign code is declared unconstitutional then it can be severed without impacting the validity of the rest of the code.
• Mandate that an advertiser is not a sign operator for purposes of enforcement.
• Clean up language that pulls all the current case law and definitions into the code to modernize it. Ensures that the Sign Code will not inadvertently extend to signage that is not intended to be regulated.
• Provide additional remedies for certain actions--abatement, disgorgement, loss of license, inventory requirements, etc.

It is time for us to act to reduce the visual clutter in our city. I look forward to seeing action on these issues in the coming months.

Sincerely,
Bob Houstonian