tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4359658292169445937.post-16320819014627446122007-09-18T11:26:00.000-04:002007-09-18T11:28:10.882-04:00Clear Channel Outdoor's effort to change state and city codes to regulate digital billboards has hit a snag.<br />San Antonio's electrical supervisory board agreed Monday to recommend a city ordinance to regulate the light-emitting diode signs, or LEDs, but suggested capping permits to 10 for the first year and banning their use on older billboards that are exempt from current restrictions.<br /><br /><br />That could crimp Clear Channel's plan to put up 150 of the digital signs and, based on a trade-out requirement in the proposed city rules, take down 600 older billboards that are mostly in neighborhoods inside Loop 410.<br />That's because many of the most lucrative billboards are on sections of major roads and freeways designated as scenic corridors, which forbid new signs that aren't part of a business. So the existing signs in those prime areas are grandfathered and therefore exempt from the rules.<br />Size, height and spacing requirements also affect what's grandfathered, but city and Clear Channel officials say the rules are murky.<br />Attorney Frank Burney, representing Clear Channel, warned the electrical board that lawyers could end up haggling, billboard by billboard, on just what is grandfathered.<br />"I'll tell you, if you go with that, it'll be a retirement fund for lawyers," he said.<br />The board disagreed, and its recommendation now heads to the City Council. Staff officials said they don't know when the council will consider the proposed ordinance.<br />The billboard industry's draw to digital signs includes the ability to remotely switch messages half a dozen times a minute or thousands of times a day.<br />The electrical board recommended that images not move, be displayed at least 10 seconds each and be switched within a second. There would also be limits on brightness and a trade-out to take down three to 19 old billboards for each digital sign.<br />Burney and three Clear Channel officials were among 17 people who spoke at a public hearing before the board vote.<br />Ten speakers opposed the ordinance, saying the lighted signs would clutter the highways and distract drivers.<br />"A message that changes every eight seconds is designed to distract you," said Larry Clark of the River Road Neighborhood Association, one of several people speaking for neighborhood groups.<br />Marcie Ince of the San Antonio Conservation Society and Kathleen Trenchard of Scenic San Antonio asked the board to wait until a Federal Highway Administration study is finished to determine what risks digital signs could pose to drivers.<br />The study is scheduled to start next year and finish by the end of 2009, administration spokesman Doug Hecox said.<br />Meanwhile, the Texas Transportation Commission proposed similar rules last month for state roads within cities and will hold a hearing Nov. 28.<br />Last year, the Texas Department of Transportation began an effort to rework a federal-state agreement to allow the digital signs. The TxDOT attorney overseeing the initiative, Timothy Anderson, has since joined Clear Channel and spoke at Monday's hearing.<br /><br />Source: Patrick Driscoll -Express-NewsPeter Pihos EDG Researchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322131009406775703noreply@blogger.com