INC NEWS - proposed billboard changes

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Can any pressure on the energy companies be placed to gain input or support from them regarding this issue? I would like to know their stance on this as well as issues relating to energy conservation, etc.

--Skip
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Miller 
  To: inc-list at rtpnet.org 
  Cc: whhna_board at googlegroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 2:07 PM
  Subject: INC NEWS - proposed billboard changes


  I see that the billboard industry is asking the city and county to ease up on the restrictions we worked so hard to get in place all through the 1990s.  The JCCPC has delayed their consideration of the requested ordinance change so that groups like INC can have their say.

   

  We need to say no!

   

  They are asking for the UDO to be changed to let them to replace existing billboards with electronic ones which will allow them to change the advertisement every few seconds.  To accomplish this, the new signs must be lighted somehow like big screen TVs.  Oh joy.  That's what we need, drivers whizzing along watching for the billboard to change instead of the traffic.

   

  We worked hard for years to eliminate the billboard blight form our streets and highways and now we have to fight all over again.

   

  The city spent fortunes in court defending its tough new billboard rules and won at every level.  The billboard industry took the fight to the legislature and tried to get laws passed which would not only eliminate a city's power to regulate billboards, but which would also require local governments to pay every time zoning or other regulations diminished the value of property.  None of these measures proposed to make the developer pay when changing regulations enhanced the value of their properties.  Fortunately, none of these proposals passed.  They did succeed in getting the legislature to end amoratization as a way phasing out unwanted uses.

   

  INC fought all these proposals in the General Assembly and organized all neighborhoods statewide to do join the struggle.  I guess I'm about the only rat left in the barn who still remembers all this.

   

  It's bad enough having to fight to stop this unsightly pollution of our streets and highways, but as neighborhood representatives, we have to remember that there is often a neighborhood on the other side of the billboard that has to contend with the damn thing looming over them too.

   

  Durham doesn't allow billboards (like about a dozen states and the progressive cities in NC).  The existing billboards are all nonconforming uses under the UDO.  Usually, when a property is nonconforming, the owner can maintain it like it is, but he can't enhance it.  The billboard industry's proposal will allow then to "upgrade" their nonconforming billboards to make them newer, brighter, and more obnoxious.  INC needs to fight to stop this and right now.

   

  Tom Miller

   



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