The Austin City Council gave initial approval Thursday to new sign and billboard rules and nixed a few proposals that had upset some neighborhood groups.

Proposed by Council Members Mike Martinez and Betty Dunkerley, the rules would ban mobile billboards (which Martinez said exacerbate traffic and air-pollution problems) and would require roadside billboards to have energy-efficient lighting.

Existing mobile billboard owners would have two years to discontinue their businesses.

The rules would also require billboard owners to pay an annual fee of $220 per sign and provide an inventory of their signs.

The fee money would be used to hire a code enforcement officer to focus on sign violations, Martinez said.

The city would also create an online database of all the billboards in Austin, Martinez said.

There are currently 621 roadside billboards in Austin and the city's future growth zone.

The council approved the rules on first reading only; a final vote will be June 5.

Martinez originally proposed allowing billboard owners to move their signs to "scenic roadways." He said he wanted to encourage the relocation of billboards out of residential neighborhoods and into commercial corridors such as Parmer Lane and Slaughter Lane, which are designated as "scenic" under city codes.

But neighborhood groups and beautification group Scenic Austin balked at the idea, fearing that billboards would end up on other scenic roads, such as RM 2222 and Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360).

Martinez scrapped that idea and two others that had upset neighborhoods: allowing billboards moved to commercial corridors to be as big as 672 square feet (up from the current limit of 300) and allowing billboards to sit 25 feet above elevated highways.

Martinez also abandoned a proposal that would have required taxi companies to pay a fee to display third-party ads. He has said he might pursue that idea later.

Six people showed up at a public hearing on the sign rules Thursday night.

Girard Kinney, president of Scenic Austin, asked the council to repeal an existing city ordinance that allows billboards to be relocated.

Relocation has not helped accomplish the goal of getting rid of billboards, Kinney said.