FORT SMITH — Representatives of outdoor advertising companies complained Monday that a proposed ordinance regulating billboards in Fort Smith would unfairly hurt their business if the signs must be kept 500 feet from residential zones.
The representatives made their comments during a public hearing the Planning Commission held on proposed regulations for billboards in and around Fort Smith.
Fort Smith is under a moratorium against granting billboard permits until the end of March so the city’s planning staff can come up with an ordinance that updates the current billboard regulations in the city and in the city’s “extraterritorial jurisdiction,” a two-mile zone around the city in which Fort Smith has planning and zoning authority.
One proposal in a draft ordinance drawn up by the planning staff is that all billboards - both conventional and “digital” billboards - be kept 250 feet from residential zones.
Three of the seven city directors, Kevin Settle, Pam Weber and Philip Merry, said in a meeting last month they would prefer such signs be kept 500 feet from residential neighborhoods.
The city has about 180 existing billboards. If they must be 250 feet from residential areas, about 65 would be out of compliance, said planning Director Wally Bailey. If the limit were increased to 500 feet, 112 would not conform to the regulations, he said.
The industry could abide by a limit of 250 feet from residential zones but not 500 feet, said Ryan Zaloudik, real estate manager for Clear Channel Outdoor.
Commissioners discussed setting up a “sign exchange” policy that would allow companies to put up new signs in growing areas in exchange for taking down older, deteriorating signs in other areas of the city. They even talked about allowing companies to erect billboards of up to 672 square feet along Interstate 540 in exchange for removing four deteriorating billboards elsewhere in town. The draft ordinance sets a limit on the size interstate signs to 378 square feet.
But RAM Outdoor Advertising managing partner Craig Roberts said there would be no incentive to remove older“junky” billboards if the regulations are so restrictive that companies had nowhere to put replacement signs.
Local businesses rely on billboards to advertise, said Lorie Robertson, client services executive with Right mind Advertising in Fort Smith, and her company does not want to see the city establish a policy that would hurt businesses.
The draft ordinance allows for digital signs and regulates them as conventional billboards. Roberts said billboard companies program the electronic signs to brighten during the day and dim at night so they are not too bright.
The proposed ordinance calls for the Planning Commission to place limits on the signs or adopt the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s digital billboard regulations.
The state has no specific measurement for brightness but relies on officials’ discretion in investigating public complaints of overly bright billboards.
Commissioners will resume the discussion on billboard regulations at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 20 at the Creekmore Park community building.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/12/2013