by KYW’s David Madden

DOWNINGTOWN, PA (CBS) — Those electronic billboards are not welcome everywhere. In fact, a Chester County official is attempting to revise a 45 year old law regulating where billboards can go up in Pennsylvania.

State Senator Andy Dinniman is concerned about two areas in particular. “One has been put up in the Downingtown area which has lit up a whole neighborhood and has outraged the citizens,” Dinniman told KYW Newsradio. “Another’s been proposed down in the southern part of the county in rural agricultural land.”

That would be along route 1 in Lower Oxford Township.

Four states have eliminated electronic billboards altogether, along with several cities. His bill would give municipalities more control over where they could go.

Chester County has long been in the forefront of open space preservation efforts. “We have spent millions of dollars to preserve open space in our historic towns and we’re not about ready to let these new electronic billboards destroy everything that we have worked over the years to create,” he said.

Dinniman was part of a hearing this week in Downingtown where Senate Democrats gathered information from locals on how important the issue is to them. He says the question of better regulation for electronic billboards is one that has spread from Philadelphia and its suburbs to the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

The measure will likely be reintroduced in Harrisburg next year with the start of a new legislative session.