Fort Smith halts new billboard work

— Fort Smith has imposed a fourmonth moratorium on the construction of new billboards while city planners study the possible effects of digital billboards.

Wally Bailey, the city’s director of development services, said the moratorium will affect applications for construction or location of new billboards and for digital conversion of existing billboards.

The moratorium was approved Tuesday during the city Board of Directors meeting.

Bailey told the directors that digital billboards can produce an intensity and brightness that could bother residents in their homes. Under existing city regulations, they can be placed where they would be near single family and multi-family residential zones, he said.

According to the ordinance city directors approved, the moratorium will remain in effect until April 19. Bailey said the staff members will work as quickly as possible to resolve the issue.

Bailey said he and his staff members plan to meet with billboard company officials to discuss the issue and get their input.

A study session also has been scheduled for Jan. 22 at which he said city directors, the city planning commission and anyone with an interest in digital billboards will meet to discuss the issue.

He said discussions and research could result in restrictions being placed on digital billboards. Or, he said, the consensus could be that they don’t require special regulation.

Lloyd Childry, president of Clear Channel Outdoor in Fort Smith, which owns billboards in Fort Smith and the surrounding region, told directors Tuesday that he did not oppose the moratorium but was concerned about the effect it would have on his business and that of the clients who rent space on his signs.

In today’s economic environment, he said, everything has an effect on business.

City Director Andre Good told Childry the city wants to be business-friendly, but also wants to make sure neighborhoods are protected from any possible ill effects caused by digital signs.

Bailey pointed out that the moratorium would not stop the city from considering requests to change most of the existing 189 billboards in Fort Smith.

Ten applications for new billboards were submitted the week before the directors imposed the moratorium, Bailey said, and all but one were approved by the Development Services Department. The application that was rejected was for a billboard in a transitional zone, he said, which the city’s zoning regulations do not allow.

Concerns were raised in the Development Services Department earlier this year when planners were looking at billboard regulations in the city’s area of extraterritorial jurisdiction, Bailey said. The extraterritorial jurisdiction area is the area just outside the city’s boundaries in which the city can still exercise planning and zoning authority.

The planners said some cities, such as North Little Rock, Fayetteville, Bentonville and Maumelle, have already addressed concerns with digital billboards, Bailey said.

The measures those cities and others have taken regarding the billboards have not been uniform, he said. Some have banned the signs, some have placed restrictions on their size and others have restricted them to certain areas, he said.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/22/2012

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