TLNA urges the Planning Commission to vote against the proposal to modify our present billboard zoning ordinance

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This is the next step in a debate over billboards in the city and county of Durham. Fairway Outdoor Advertising, a Georgia-based billboard company that owns 44 of the 92 billboards in Durham, has filed to have the city and county consider a formal application for a change in zoning law to allow them to upgrade their signs to metal and digital. Previously, the Joint City-County Planning Committee voted not to change the law. After the Planning Commission, both the City Council and County Board will consider the changes. A copy of the requested law change is here: http://media.mgnetwork.com/ncn/pdf/100304_development_ordinance_amendment.pdf

Opponents of change have a web site. http://supportdurhambillboardban.com/

TLNA Board has voted to join other neighborhoods who oppose any change in the law. You can read our statement here:

A Resolution from Tuscaloosa-Lakewood Neighborhood Association regarding a proposal by Fairway Outdoor Magic, LLC. to allow new billboards--including electronic billboards--in Durham by revising our present ordinance:

Whereas Durham’s current ban on new or upgraded billboards was created to protect neighborhoods from visual clutter and to improve Durham’s visual landscape,

Whereas the push to revise our billboard ordinance is coming from an out-of-state company and not from Durham citizens who will live next to and drive by these flashing billboards for decades to come,

Whereas independent studies of electronic billboards have been shown to distract drivers and increase accidents,

Whereas the scientific public opinion poll conducted last August by NanoPhrades for the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau found that 72% of respondents supported the existing ban on new billboards (a ratio of 9 to 1),

Whereas the City-County Planning Department has stated that a digital billboard can use 397,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity and create 108.4 tons of carbon dioxide per year (the equivalent of 49 traditional billboards),

Whereas electronic billboards are not in keeping with Durham’s carbon reduction plan, Governor Perdue’s proposals for a greener North Carolina, and President Obama’s energy policy,

Whereas the applicants’ billboards produce less than $3,000 in county tax revenue and digital billboards would not bring a significant increase,

Whereas the applicants’ promised public service announcements on electronic billboards are unnecessary, given our ready access to such information in a variety of other places that don’t involve distraction while driving,

Whereas electronic billboards would be a distracting, unsafe, unattractive, and environmentally unsound addition to Durham’s highways and communities,

Therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Tuscaloosa-Lakewood Neighborhood Association urges the Planning Commission to vote against the proposal to modify our present zoning ordinance, which prohibits new billboards, including electronic billboards, in Durham.

Adopted 7 January 2009

The Board of Tuscaloosa-Lakewood Neighborhood Association


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