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Billboard Settlement Is Reached

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: November 21, 2008

TAMPA - City officials have proposed a settlement to end a more than decade-old dispute with two sign companies over the number of billboards they can put up across the city.

City Attorney Chip Fletcher said the settlement will require CBS Outdoors and Clear Channel Outdoors to take down billboards from so-called "view corridors" - high-view areas where the city wants to maintain aesthetics. In exchange for removing them, he said, both companies will be able to replace them with digital billboards in other areas.

"The bottom line is that this will mean fewer billboards in the city," Fletcher said.

Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, for one, opposes the settlement. She said it will mean a proliferation of digital billboards - which look like large television screens and rotate multiple advertisements - that will ruin the city's landscape and create public safety issues.

"I believe we should continue to fight this in court," Saul-Sena said, criticizing the city's administration for proposing "a policy change under the guise of a settlement."

Representatives for both companies did not return calls seeking comment.

Fletcher said both outdoor advertising companies were hoping to resolve the dispute ahead of Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.

The dispute dates to 1996, when the city signed an agreement with the companies limiting the number of billboards in the city limits. CBS and Clear Channel filed lawsuits against the city in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, challenging the agreement terms.

At issue is whether the outdoor sign companies have a right to replace billboards that the city has required them to remove over the years. Since the 1996 agreement, Clear Channel has taken down 567 billboards; CBS has removed 54. Currently, CBS has 711 permitted billboards within the city limits; Clear Channel has 129, city officials said.

The settlement, which must be approved by the council, spells out where the companies can put digital billboards, their sizes and other requirements and allows the companies to replace a certain number of traditional billboards with the digital ones.

Both companies have agreed to pay the city $25,000 to cover its legal expenses.

Opponents of the settlement want the city to increase the distance between the signs and residential neighborhoods and restrict the number of digital billboards allowed.

"They're distracting and they will change the character of the city," said William Jonson, president of Citizens for A Scenic Florida, a nonprofit group that opposes billboards.

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

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