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Late Deals Postpone Tampa Council's Billboard Vote

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: December 19, 2008

TAMPA - Last-minute negotiations between representatives of a neighborhood group and two advertising companies forced the city council on Thursday to postpone a vote on a settlement aimed at reducing the number of billboards that can be put up across the city.

The proposed settlement before the council would have required CBS Outdoors and Clear Channel Outdoors to take down traditional billboards in scenic areas of the city.

In exchange, they would be allowed to replace them with digital billboards in other areas.

Neighborhood groups and some council members argue that the deal would mean a proliferation of digital billboards - large television-like screens that display multiple advertisements - ruining the city's visual landscape and creating public safety issues.

Members of Tampa Homeowners, An Association of Neighborhoods had managed to win several concessions from the companies with approval from city officials, including increasing the distance between the digital signs and residential properties from 200 feet to 500 feet and setting the ratio of replacing regular billboards with digital ones to 4 to 1.

But when other concessions were agreed to outside council chambers on Thursday, city officials said they needed time to review the changes to the proposed settlement.

"I'm not comfortable going forward with this right now," City Attorney Chip Fletcher said.

With that, a vote on the settlement was rescheduled to the council's Jan. 22 meeting.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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