The Landscape IS Changing
Posted: July 19th, 2006, 7:57 am
LUConn's boy, Panfan1 is right--the landscape is changing:
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 3749&path=
LU to take advantage of landscape law
Conor Reilly
mreilly@newsadvance.com
July 18, 2006
A new state law has placed Liberty University in the driver’s seat of landscaping and beautifying U.S. 460 near the campus.
LU is the first private entity in the state to take advantage of the law. It allows the city to award permits to private groups who want to take care of landscaping the highway, a task typically reserved for the city or the state.
The city gave LU permission last week to work with sponsors to landscape and beautify government-owned land along U.S. 460 near the campus.
It will look similar to gardens on the Lynchburg Expressway, complete with small signs advertising businesses that sponsored the landscaping.Jerry Falwell Jr., LU’s vice chancellor, said adding signs near LU’s campus was not the purpose of getting involved. The main reason is to make the area beautiful and more appealing.
LU will be responsible for planting and maintaining the gardens. It also could potentially be in the position of seeking out sponsors, deciding who can donate and handling the money that comes in.
“I don’t think anybody exactly knows how this thing’s going to work,” City Attorney Walter Erwin said.
But since the college controls the land under a city permit, could LU deny groups with messages contrary to its religious beliefs from sponsoring a garden?
The short answer is yes, Erwin said. But exact details aren’t firm yet.
While no case law directly supports his answer, he said a U.S. Supreme Court opinion might be relevant.
It concerned a Boston veterans group that received a permit from the city to hold a parade in 1993. The group refused to allow an Irish-American Gay & Lesbian group to march.
That group filed a discrimination suit, and said its First Amendment rights were violated.
The Supreme Court found the veterans group was “a speaker in its own right.” It is therefore a violation of the veterans’ rights to free speech if forced to include a group inconsistent with its message.
Erwin said under that precedent, LU would be within its rights if it said no to a group from sponsoring a sign on U.S. 460.
LU Director of Field Operations J.O. Renalds said, regardless of the legal issues that may come up, the project would benefit the city, the university and VDOT.
The landscaping plans will tie together LU’s main and north campuses. And with the opening of the U.S. 29 bypass, U.S. 460 is now a major entrance into Lynchburg.
Renalds said the signs won’t contain any political messages; state regulations say the signs can only include “Landscaped by…” followed by the name of the sponsoring business.
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 3749&path=
LU to take advantage of landscape law
Conor Reilly
mreilly@newsadvance.com
July 18, 2006
A new state law has placed Liberty University in the driver’s seat of landscaping and beautifying U.S. 460 near the campus.
LU is the first private entity in the state to take advantage of the law. It allows the city to award permits to private groups who want to take care of landscaping the highway, a task typically reserved for the city or the state.
The city gave LU permission last week to work with sponsors to landscape and beautify government-owned land along U.S. 460 near the campus.
It will look similar to gardens on the Lynchburg Expressway, complete with small signs advertising businesses that sponsored the landscaping.Jerry Falwell Jr., LU’s vice chancellor, said adding signs near LU’s campus was not the purpose of getting involved. The main reason is to make the area beautiful and more appealing.
LU will be responsible for planting and maintaining the gardens. It also could potentially be in the position of seeking out sponsors, deciding who can donate and handling the money that comes in.
“I don’t think anybody exactly knows how this thing’s going to work,” City Attorney Walter Erwin said.
But since the college controls the land under a city permit, could LU deny groups with messages contrary to its religious beliefs from sponsoring a garden?
The short answer is yes, Erwin said. But exact details aren’t firm yet.
While no case law directly supports his answer, he said a U.S. Supreme Court opinion might be relevant.
It concerned a Boston veterans group that received a permit from the city to hold a parade in 1993. The group refused to allow an Irish-American Gay & Lesbian group to march.
That group filed a discrimination suit, and said its First Amendment rights were violated.
The Supreme Court found the veterans group was “a speaker in its own right.” It is therefore a violation of the veterans’ rights to free speech if forced to include a group inconsistent with its message.
Erwin said under that precedent, LU would be within its rights if it said no to a group from sponsoring a sign on U.S. 460.
LU Director of Field Operations J.O. Renalds said, regardless of the legal issues that may come up, the project would benefit the city, the university and VDOT.
The landscaping plans will tie together LU’s main and north campuses. And with the opening of the U.S. 29 bypass, U.S. 460 is now a major entrance into Lynchburg.
Renalds said the signs won’t contain any political messages; state regulations say the signs can only include “Landscaped by…” followed by the name of the sponsoring business.
