Digital billboard must come down - Murfreesboro

June 27, 2007

By ERIN EDGEMON

An appeal on the revocation of a sign permit for a digital billboard sign installed by Lamar Advertising in March was denied by the Murfreesboro Board of Zoning Appeals Wednesday.“This is a sign that is not permitted in the (city sign) ordinance and so forth it is prohibited,” said board member John Rodgers before the board voted unanimously to deny Lamar’s appeal.He said the sign located on Old Fort Parkway near the freestanding Starbucks Coffee House was not built according to the plans submitted to the city of Murfreesboro.The digital sign displays approximately 16 different advertisements that change every 10 seconds.Murfreesboro’s sign ordinance, which was undated earlier this year, prohibits commercial and non-commercial flashing and electronic message center signs.According to city building officials, Lamar Advertising submitted a sign permit application indicating it was going to reinstall an indirectly illuminated 10-foot, 6-inch-by-36-foot billboard, and that the billboard would not contain any moving devices. The construction cost would not exceed $24,000.Construction on the sign began Feb. 21, 2007 and was completed March 13. The city stated Lamar Advertising was notified verbally that it was in violation of the sign ordinance on March 13 and was mailed a letter on March 27.Lamar Advertising originally requested the sign permit to rebuild its billboard sign in May 2004, but it wasn’t issued until October 2004. That permit and another subsequent permit expired before the final permit was issued in November 2006.Knoxville Attorney Lawrence Leibowitz, who represented Lamar, said the sign is lawful. He said the use of the sign was established before the city placed a moratorium on electronic signs in January 2007.Lamar’s attorney also indicated that state law allowed for the sign to be updated and grandfathered in under a preexisting sign ordinance.Board chair Bill Nelms and other board members weren’t sure if the city’s definition of flashing or electronic message center signs in the sign ordinance pertain to the Lamar sign in question.“I am not sure if this ordinance deals with this technology that we have in this sign,” Nelms said. Technology has sped past this sign ordinance. The technology and the sign industry is moving faster than the Murfresboro City Council has been able to move to keep up with it.”

Source: Murfreesboro Post