[Durham INC] Reminder: pls email officials to support Durham's billboard ban

[John Schelp]

Folks, we don't have the resources to send glossy, colorful reports to elected officials, we don't have billboards to pressure City Council and County Commissioners, we don't have petty cash for lobbyists and lawyers trying to get electronic billboards in our community. 

But, we have people -- and we have numbers.

Please send a short/positive email asking officials to "support Durham's billboard ordinance as is" (with no changes that would help out-of-state billboard companies).

Send your note TO: commissioners at durhamcountync.gov, Council at DurhamNC.Gov

(As of yesterday, a City Council member told a constituent that they were undecided on which way to vote.)   

To see facts (that aren't cooked), check out the Planning Department's compelling memo opposing industry's measure... http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/zoning_committee/items/TC1000002_report.pdf

Below is some more background.

have a great weekend,
John

Column: Preserve limits on billboards
By John Schelp & Larry Holt, Herald-Sun, 28 July 2010

In recent weeks, the billboard industry has increased its pressure on local officials to overturn Durham's successful billboard ordinance.

The industry is using the same tactics in Durham it has elsewhere: campaign contributions to officials who will vote on industry's measure, horse-trading with cash-strapped nonprofits to pressure local jurisdictions and a synthetic-roots mailing campaign, using prepared support letters mailed to local officials in Fairway Advertising envelopes with Raleigh postmarks. These tactics all came to light in the controversy that followed their recent press conference (Billboard battle erupts over PAC 'backing' 06/26/10 Herald-Sun).

According to the Planning Department, "Implementing the [billboard industry's] request would provide little economic benefit to Durham and require significant resources that the City and County lack." And while switching to electronic billboards would not generate significant tax revenues for Durham, local taxpayers would have to pay the industry "just compensation" for lost revenues (which increase exponentially with electronic billboards) to remove any billboards in the future –- potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars (Planning Dept memo, April 2010).

So, industry gets more money with little to lose and taxpayers open themselves to a ton of risk.

The Herald-Sun is right: If the billboard industry’s proposed changes are approved, we open a "can of worms" and risk a raft of very expensive lawsuits. The City attorney's office said that revising the ordinance could lead the City and County into "a legal minefield" when others demand the same special treatment for their signs.

Industry's long two-year campaign to change minds hasn't worked. Sure-fire billboard supporters have backed off. Earlier this year, officials received more than 500 emails supporting Durham's current billboard ordinance (and only three for electronic billboards).

Seeing widespread community opposition, billboard industry lobbyists and lawyers assert that their measure will move billboards farther away from our homes. But the proposal itself, which was written by the billboard industry, actually states that billboards would be allowed to stay right where they are. Old illegal signs could be replaced with new electronic billboards that rise 50ft in the sky, brighter than daylight, blinking 10,000 ads per day. Other electronic billboards could be located as close as 200 feet to a house. It’s disingenuous truth-spinning for industry to claim their new billboard measure will move billboards away from homes.

The industry is attempting to buy support by promising to include Silver and Amber Alerts on its billboards. North Carolina has already spent millions on electronic message boards safely positioned above travel lanes to post these alerts. Putting important messages on electronic billboards would require drivers to take their eyes from the road to watch a billboard beside the highway and read multiple ads between alerts. The risk distracting billboards pose to public safety on our roads outweighs any benefit of the industry’s much-touted messages that duplicate information already available on the state's e-signs.

Last year, Durham law enforcement officers issued a statement asserting that small cardboard signs in traffic circles were an "inappropriate and potentially dangerous" distraction for drivers. "We fear that these signs could be a distraction to even the most law-abiding motorist and possibly cause collisions."

If small signs in traffic circles are a potentially dangerous distraction for drivers, how much more so big, bright electronic billboard flashing 10,000 ads a day?

Fairway claims Durham's sign ordinance hasn't reduced the number of billboards here. Not true. Durham has successfully gone from about 200 billboards in 1984 to around 90 today.

In its mailings to elected officials, the billboard industry says its measure will "enhance community aesthetics" and "advance Durham" and that we need to get rid of our "out-of-date" ordinance. Support for our current ordinance reveals that most folks don't think going back to the 1970's is "advancing" Durham. Billboards themselves are an out-of-date technology in an internet and cell phone age.

For 25 years, the billboard industry has allowed its billboards to get run-down rather than maintain and improve them. After doing so little to "enhance community aesthetics" for years, they now have the nerve to say we should support their measure so they can improve their run-down billboards. Why should we reward an industry that has deliberately let its product become an eyesore in our community?

It adds insult to injury that the Chamber of Commerce, which receives $128,000 in annual taxpayer subsidies, is disregarding citizen preferences to lobby local officials to let a Georgia company stick electronic billboards near our neighborhoods.

We need to protect Durham's successful billboard ordinance, not gut it.


Note: The authors live in Durham. To see maps, photos and letters of support, visit supportdurhambillboardban.com