Resident plead with council to prohibit digital billboards

Representatives of several neighborhood associations pleaded with city council members on today not to allow digital billboards to be installed across the city.

At a workshop, council members listened to a litany of concerns from groups opposed to a proposed ordinance would allow outdoor advertising companies to install electronic displays across the city, including sections of busy thoroughfares such as Dale Mabry Highway and Gandy Boulevard.

City code currently forbids the state-of-the-art technology, which can display several ads on one full-sized billboard. If approved, rules would limit the number of digital billboards to 40 citywide, impose restrictions on their brightness and ban them in historic districts.

"We don't want them here in the city," said Wofford Johnson, president of Tampa Homeowners, an association of neighborhoods that represents dozens of city homeowners associations. "Our position is that this is a major safety issue."

The ordinance is the result of an agreement, approved by the council last month, settling a decade of litigation with billboard giants CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor.

The agreements require the companies to take down billboards from so-called scenic areas. In exchange, they will be allowed to replace them with billboards in other areas as long as they adhere to proposed rule changes on height, brightness and placement.

But the settlements also included a provision allowing the companies to opt out of them if the city doesn't pass an ordinance to allow electronic signs in four to six months.

That could send the issue back to court.

Council members voted Thursday to schedule another workshop on the issue in April, when council members will expect to make changes to the proposed ordinance.

"It appears that the industry drafted this and just handed it to the city for approval," said Councilman John Dingfelder. "We need to tiptoe into this thing."

Todd Pressman, a lobbyist representing Clear Channel Outdoors, said the settlement would vastly improve Tampa's visual landscape by reducing the number of billboards.

He said the displays are no brighter than a full moon.

"It's the equivalent to a moonlit night," he told council members. "If you've never had a complaint about moonlight then you shouldn't have a problem with digital billboards."

CBS and Clear Channel have more than 1,300 billboards in the city, combined.