Billboard Text Amendment Joint City-County Planning Committee

Billboard Text Amendment

Joint City-County Planning Committee
February 4, 2009

Prepared by the Durham City-County
Planning Department
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UDO Sign Ordinance
Sec. 11.1.1, Purpose
 Maintain and enhance the aesthetic
environment, and the community’s ability
to attract sources of economic
development and growth
 Eliminate physical and visual clutter
 Improve pedestrian and traffic safety
 Minimize possible adverse effects of signs
on nearby public and private property

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Billboards in Durham
 Billboards are “off-premise” signs
 In the 1980’s and 90’s, Durham
determined that billboards are
aesthetically detrimental
 Prohibited new billboards
 Required removal of many existing billboards

under a six-year “amortization” period

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Billboards in Durham
 The billboards that remain are protected under
the Federal Highway Beautification Act
 Located on Interstate or federal-aid highways
 We would have to pay “just compensation” for their
removal – value of property plus lost revenues

 They are “nonconforming”
 Legal when established but now prohibited

 The goal for any nonconforming use or
structure is eventual removal
 In the meantime, it cannot be expanded or enlarged

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Nonconforming Billboard
Restrictions
 May not be enlarged, relocated, or
improved through substantially different
materials
 May not add lighting; existing lighting may
not be increased
 Must be removed if repair or damage

exceeds 25% of value
 Lesser of declared value when permitted or
replacement value

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Nonconforming Billboards:
Limited Life Span Expected
They are removed due to:
 Highway Construction
(Compensation by state if no relocation)
 Property Owner Decisions
(Billboards lease space on private property)
 State Permit Revocations
 Maintenance Over 25% of Value
 Acts of God
NCDOT, City Staff
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Durham Billboard Numbers
Year
2000
2008
2010

Number
101 billboards
89 billboards

(46 owned by Fairway)
Estimate removal of 8
billboards due to East End
Connector ROW acquisitions
(all owned by Fairway)

NCDOT, City Staff, Fairway Web Site
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National Rate of Attrition
 National average rate of attrition for
nonconforming billboards appears
to be 1.5-2% per year
 11% have been removed in Durham
since 2000, right at the national
average
 With 8 removed in 2010, we will
exceed the national average

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Additional Removals Pending
Also anticipate removals for other
projects listed in DCHC MPO’s 2030
(adopted) and 2035 (proposed) Long
Range Transportation Plans
 Alston Avenue widening (2011)
 1-2 likely removed

 Others determined as project designs are
completed and ROW acquisition begins
City Staff

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Digital Billboards

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Digital Billboards

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Billboard Revenues
Digital Signs are Lucrative
 Revenue from standard signs = $1,000 to
$2,000 per month ($12-24,000 per year)
 Revenue from digital signs = $14,000 per
month ($168,000 per year)
 7-14 times the revenue for standard signs

 12 digital signs = $2,016,000 per year
 Sign technology costs $200,000 to
$500,000 per sign
Inc. Magazine

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Tax Revenues
 Billboards are taxed as personal
property
 For instance, Fairway paid $2,605.60 to
Durham County in 2008
 Property taxes may rise for digital
billboards, but would still not generate
significant revenue
Durham County tax records for Fairway Outdoor
Advertising, Naegele Outdoor Advertising, and MCC Outdoor LLC

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Public Service Announcements
Potentially Unconstitutional
First amendment rights can be
violated by sign regulations that
affect the content of a sign’s message.
Such regulations “should therefore
be avoided.”
SRF Consulting Group, Inc. for City of Minnetonka (2007)

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Public Service Announcements
Also…
 Difficult to manage
 Lost in the clutter
 Average 7 advertisers per sign per minute

 Construed as public endorsement
of inappropriate advertising
 Alcohol and sexually suggestive material

 Make billboard removal harder
 “Participating in the vice”
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Public Service Announcements
 Have been used to assist in
emergencies (Minneapolis bridge
collapse) and crime-stopping
 But cities are realizing they must
balance PSA’s against other
concerns
 A City Council member in Mobile, AL proposed
a moratorium for safety reasons despite a
successful crime-stopping there
The Debate Over Digital Billboards: Can New Technology Inform Drivers
Without Distracting Them?, Birdsall, ITE (Institute of Traffic
Engineers) Journal, April 2008
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Other Legal Concerns
 Liability for accidents
 If billboards are allowed knowing that national safety
studies are pending

 Uncertainty about relevance of local
“nonconforming” status
 Is it really legal under state and federal law to relocate
Durham’s billboards or convert them to digital?

 Controversy nationwide about whether
digital billboards are legal under the federal
Highway Beautification Act
 How will the new federal administration interpret the Act
and its federal/state agreements?
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Other Considerations
 Effects on property
values
 Effects on nearby
households and
businesses
 Enormous
compensation costs if
signs are altered,
moved, or removed
 For highway construction

 If found to be unsafe
Scenic America
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Tourism/Economic Development
“Billboards contribute a miniscule amount to our
economic well-being, but they impose a high cost.
They detract from Colorado’s attractiveness to
tourists and from the pleasant surroundings for our
residents.”
The Honorable Richard Lamm,
former Governor of Colorado

“The way a community looks affects how both
residents and visitors feel about it. An attractive
community has a better chance at industry,
including tourism.”
Mississippi Research and Development Center

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Tourism/Economic Development
 Billboards can be considered both a cause
and a symptom of urban blight
 Billboard control is good for tourism
 Maine, Vermont, Hawaii, and Alaska prohibit
billboards
 50% increase in Vermont tourism revenues

 Billboard control is good for business
 Total sales rise when billboards are controlled Raleigh, Williamsburg, and Houston studies
Scenic America

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Aesthetic Concerns
 Brightest objects in the
landscape
 Become dominant
visual element and
overwhelm fundamental
character
 Distract from other
visual/scenic qualities
 Clash with historic or
important architectural
elements, even at great
distances
Scenic America
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How bright is a digital billboard?





Sunlight is measured at 6,500 nits
During the daytime, a digital sign can be set at over
10,000 nits
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found digital
billboards to be 10X brighter than the surrounding area

Scenic America

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Environmental Considerations
 One digital billboard
consumes 397,486
kWh/year
 The carbon footprint
of one digital
billboard = 49
traditional billboards
or 13.39 homes
 One digital billboard
= 108.41 tons/year of
carbon dioxide
Scenic America

*

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One standard size digital
billboard contains 449,280
light-emitting diodes (LEDs)


Safety – Driver Inattention
 Driver inattention causes 22.7 percent of accidents.
 More than any other factor - vehicle speed, alcohol impairment,
perceptual errors, decision errors, incapacitation, other
Driver Inattention is a Major Factor in Serious Traffic Crashes, National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration/Virginia Tech Transportation
Institute(2001)

 Numerous studies suggest that attentional/distraction
problems are a major contributory factor to accidents.
 Cognitive overload – confusion, inadequate time to process
 Cognitive underload (long, boring trips) – drivers stop paying attention
to the road and are easily distracted
External-to-Vehicle Driver Distraction , Wallace, Scottish Executive Social
Research (2003)
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Safety – Length of Distraction
 Anything that distracts the driver from the
forward roadway for more than two seconds
significantly increases the chances of crashes
and near crashes.
 23% of crashes and near-crashes in metropolitan
environments are attributable to eyes off the forward

roadway greater than two seconds.
 Nearly 80% of the crashes and 65% of near crashes
were caused by distractions that made the driver look
away for up to three seconds.
Scenic America, citing 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study, USDOT National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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