by TRC_Admin | Mar 31, 2021 | Billboards, Floating
Photo: David Tucker, St. Augustine Record
“No tacky displays”
“‘Unbelievable’ or ‘You’ve got to be kidding’ – These are the only phrases which come to mind when reading [the St. Augustine Record] March 19 article about the Volusia County Council approving the use of floating billboards along Volusia County’s invaluable 47 miles of Atlantic seashore! Other adjectives such as ugly and tacky also come to mind. As mentioned in the article, once this Pandora’s Box is opened there will be no basis for refusing other requests, leading to a parade of these monstrosities cluttering up our otherwise pristine views of the Atlantic Ocean, where we should be looking at dolphins, right whales and swimmers, not tacky advertising. Maybe as a crowning achievement one of these barge/billboards trafficking up and down the beach could strike one of our endangered Right Whale population…
There seems to be no benefit to Volusia taxpayers and voting constituents, only to the promoters of the concept and a handful of businesses who might advertise on the billboard. I suspect that County Council members will find out at the next election what the broader views of their constituents are on the subject. ”
— Richard Schook, Letter to the editor, St. Augustine Record
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by TRC_Admin | Mar 31, 2021 | Billboards, City Signs, Codes, Legal
Photo: Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman
“Reagan and Lamar sued the City of Austin when the city denied approximately 85 digital billboard permits for off-premise advertising billboards arguing that the City Sign Code’s distinction between on-premise and off-premise signs violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment free speech clause.
The case was first heard by the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, and held FOR the City, ie, that the city sign code on/off-premise distinction was not content-based and was constitutional using an intermediate scrutiny standard of review.
On August 25, 2020, a three-member panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the US Western District Court and held:the Austin Sign Code’s on-premises/off-premises distinction was content-based and must therefore be subject to a strict scrutiny standard of review. The Fifth Circuit concluded that under that higher standard of review, the city’s on/off-premise distinction was content-based, thus unconstitutional.
The City of Austin has announced it will appeal to SCOTUS—filing due January 21, 2021.”
— Scenic Texas
Scenic Texas legal experts weigh in on this case
Read additional article about this battle in the Austin American-Statesman
by TRC_Admin | Feb 3, 2021 | Billboards
Photo: Scenic Florida
The second of three Outfront Media billboards (located along Interstate 95 in Southern Duval County) was dismantled and removed on January 7th as part of a take-down settlement negotiated several years ago between Scenic Florida and Outfront Media.
— Scenic Florida
Learn more about Scenic Florida
by TRC_Admin | Feb 3, 2021 | Billboards
Photo: David Tucker, The Daytona Beach News Journal
“The last of nearly a dozen billboards that Palm Coast developer pledged to remove when he purchased them more than three years ago came tumbling down piece by piece on Monday…
Jim Cullis, president of Grand Living Realty, came out to watch as demolition crews dismantled the over-sized display board just east of the Hammock Dunes Bridge overpass along State Road A1A, also called Ocean Shore Boulevard. He was joined by county officials and members of several local organizations that are dedicated to conserving the natural beauty of the historic scenic roadway.
‘It’s the end of a three-year effort to work with the Friends of A1A and the (Hammock) Conservancy and the county to beautify scenic A1A,’ Cullis said. “We struck this arrangement three years ago, and it’s gone by pretty quickly. There were a total of 11 boards involved in this arrangement, and now they’re all gone.’
The signs were part of a collection of 14 billboards that included three on Interstate 95. Cullis said he bought the boards from a developer in Hammock Dunes for $213,000 in June 2013. Four months later, he sold eight of them to the county for $80,000, and officials demolished two other full-sized billboards on S.R. A1A as part of that deal. He said the Hammock Dunes Association purchased another sign from him and destroyed it last summer.
County officials agreed to allow Cullis to continue leasing the billboards for three years in exchange for him selling them at a cheaper rate. The pact called for him to tear them all down by the end of this month.
The one ripped down Monday was a two-sided display board advertising Coldwell Banker on one side and Bellagio Custom Homes on the other. Cullis said it was among the largest signs in the group and accounted for two billboards coming down because it was double-sided. Cullis said there are now 24 left standing along S.R. A1A, and county officials said the goal is to one day remove them all.
‘It’s a scenic byway, so we’re trying to keep up the way it was,’ said Commissioner Greg Hansen, who was on hand to watch as workers began dismantling the sign Monday. ‘We want it to be as natural as it can be.’
Fellow Commissioner David Sullivan was also on hand and echoed Hansen’s sentiments.
‘The deal is it beautifies the road,’ he said. ‘We don’t have the eye sore, and that’s what we’re trying to do — make A1A as beautiful a road as it can possibly be…’
‘Everybody has wanted this, and Jim (Cullis) has made that possible,’ said Marge Rooyakkers, president of the Hammock Community Association and Hammock Conservancy. ‘All our advertising will be done electronically now. All the millennials and young folk are on their cell phones, all on their computers. They just don’t need this anymore…’
Dennis Clark, a member of Scenic A1A Pride, the Flagler chapter of the Friends of A1A group, estimated the billboards have been a staple on the road for about 30 years.
‘It’s a huge improvement,’ he said. ‘We’ve been working to do this for probably 14, or 15 years. It was finally possible with Jim Cullis allowing us to do it. So this is fantastic as an improvement and a beautification.'”
— Matt Bruce, The Daytona Beach News Journal
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by TRC_Admin | Feb 3, 2021 | Advertising Industry, Billboards, City Signs, Legal
Photo: Nate Smallwood, Tribune-Review
“The state Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with Lamar Advertising, finding that a large vinyl banner the company put on its Mt. Washington billboard nearly five years ago does not violate a Pittsburgh zoning ordinance.
The banner in question was placed over a previous electronic billboard overlooking the city in May 2016. It advertised Sprint, the telecommunications company, in black lettering over a gold-yellow background. The space now advertises Iron City Beer in large red letters on white.
The court, in a 4-3 opinion written by Justice David Wecht, found that the vinyl sign does not violate the zoning code cited by the city.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto once called the banner an ‘eyesore…’
The original billboard at issue was erected in the mid-1920s on a parcel of land owned by Lamar on Grandview Avenue. It is a concrete structure measuring 7,200 square feet and until May 2016 included a 4,500-square-foot electronic advertising sign. It has been used for local brands like Bayer, Iron City Beer and Alcoa.
Then, without approval from the city, Lamar placed the vinyl Sprint sign over the existing electronic sign.
A month later, the city issued a violation notice to Lamar alleging the sign violated two sections of the zoning code: one that bars the enlargement or addition to an already non-conforming sign (as the electronic one had previously been categorized) without approval, and another that requires the removal of an advertising sign when a business has been terminated.
In November 2016, the Pittsburgh Zoning Hearing Board heard testimony that the vinyl sign did not change the existing structure of the sign but increased the total advertising space from 4,500 square feet to 7,200. The board ruled against Lamar, finding that the alterations to the sign would change its structure. Further, it found that the changes required conditional use and site-plan approval under a previous court case involving Lamar in Monroeville…
The company appealed to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
The judge there reversed the zoning board, finding that it had exceeded its jurisdiction by “venturing beyond the two provisions under which [the city] had cited Lamar. The court also agreed with Lamar that it did not need a permit to change the Mount Washington billboard …”
Commonwealth Court, in August 2019, affirmed that decision, finding that because Lamar did not increase the size of the sign, there was no violation. The city appealed to the state Supreme Court, which heard the argument in September.
In the 14-page opinion issued Wednesday, the court said that the previous case involving Lamar’s attempt to transition 17 existing static billboards in Monroeville to electronic ones is not applicable.
In that instance, the court ruled against Lamar, finding that the transition to electronic billboards in Monroeville required significant structural alterations to the existing structures, ‘whereas its placement of the vinyl sign over the sign structure of the Mount Washington billboard did not require any structural alterations…'”
— Paula Reed Ward, Tribune-Review
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by TRC_Admin | Dec 1, 2020 | Billboards, Technology
Photo: In WEHOville.com
“With a unanimous vote on Thursday night, West Hollywood’s Planning Commission approved a new cutting-edge digital billboard on the Sunset Strip that will appear to float in the air.
Using the latest LED technology, the ‘Floating Billboard’ at 8743 Sunset Blvd. at Sherbourne Drive, will have an opaque frame that seems to disappear when viewed from certain angles. This ‘invisible frame’ will make the digital advertising image on the 14-foot-tall and 48-foot-wide LED billboard appear to float above the historic building beneath it.
The secret to the three-foot ‘invisible frame’ surrounding the billboard’s advertising area is that it too will be made of LED digital surface. Cameras at the rear of the billboard will continually take images of the sky conditions to the east and transmit those live images onto the LED frame facing west.
‘It will reflect the sky behind to the front edge of the billboard and then create the illusion of an invisible billboard,’ explained billboard architect Benjamin Anderson.
This new digital billboard will replace the existing static billboard atop the Constance Bennett building, which dates back to 1936. The Georgian Revival style building was named after the famous movie actress who commissioned it. Sunset Sherbourne Holdings, LLC, headed by Chris Bonbright, currently owns the building…”
— James F. Mills, WEHOville.com
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