[Durham INC] Letter: Tell county to keep billboard ban (from INC pres)

[John Schelp]

Letter: Tell county to keep billboard ban
Durham News, 12 Sept 2010

The Durham Board of County Commissioners will take up the billboard question at it meeting Monday evening.Now is the time to let them know that just because the issue was put off a month doesn't mean we have forgotten about it or softened our belief that anything other than the current billboard ban is good for Durham.

The City Council voted unanimously to keep the billboard ban in Durham's zoning code and, while that's really great for us in the city (I live in Watts-Hillandale), it isn't the end of the battle.The county commissioners still have to decide whether to allow billboard companies to move their billboards to the parts of the county outside the city limits and to erect electronic billboards there.

These areas are the gateways to our city.And while it's nice to think that we won't have electronic billboards on I-85 at Hillandale Road, we don't want them shining in neighbors' windows anywhere.We don't want Durham to be the billboard haven in the middle of a Triangle region that doesn't allow them.This isn't the Durham we are building, the Durham of the future.

Monday's proceedings before the Board of Commissioners is a test not only for county neighborhoods, but for city neighborhoods too. We got what we wanted when the City Council voted to keep the billboard ban.Will we stay home and let our neighbors in the county fend for themselves? Anybody who thinks that doesn't know what the InterNeighborhood Council is all about. So please, let the commissioners know we are still watching and that we still care.Attend the public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday at the Old County Courthouse on Main Street downtown.

You can e-mail all the commissioners at commissioners at durhamcountync.gov.

Tom Miller
President
InterNeighborhood Council