Digital Billboard loses, we hope not for the last time

The Jefferson County Board of Zoning Adjustments voted (gif file, zoom to read) yesterday unanimously to not let Lamar Advertising put up a giant electronic billboard near Brookwood Hospital. There's a regular billboard right now - on the east side of U.S. 31 going up the hill from Lakeshore to Vestavia Hills. It is hard to imagine a worse place for a Jumbotron TV screen, and the BZA agreed.

I unfortunately missed the first few minutes of Lamar's presentation to the Board, but I did catch the part where Tom Traylor said that a digital billboard there was not only a good idea but "essential" to the community. As they always do, they talked about Amber Alerts, and putting up pictures of wanted criminals. (I have some answers to that - including how the heck you're supposed to remember all that information if you're paying attention to the road - which I will expand on in a future post.)

This particular case brings up the bigger issue of billboard companies finding every possible pocket of unincorporated land and putting up billboards, usually within a city that doesn't allow them. They just put up a digital billboard on Highway 150 in Hoover, on land that's still in the county. I would not be surprised if they've approached the owners of land down the road that's for sale, about doing the same thing. (As of this week, there were no permit requests, but I will keep an eye out.)

The county has a cap on the number of billboards, but all that means is that they can take a billboard down somewhere (maybe on U.S. 78 where it is bypassed by Corridor X) and put one up in a new location. It's a huge loophole that is letting Lamar basically thumb its nose at cities like Hoover and Vestavia that don't want billboards.

The only real solution is for the county to change their sign law to not allow new billboards, and to have an immediate moratorium on digital boards. Otherwise, citizens will continue to get their right to peaceful enjoyment of their property trampled on.

We tried a couple of years ago to get the County Commission to consider this, but came up against a brick wall. It will take a lot more public pressure to get them to take action. If you want to stop the billboard companies from taking over your city, join us! We can do it with your help.