Starkville mayor uses veto power to stop billboard reconfiguration

STARKVILLE , MS

Starkville Mayor Dan Camp kept his veto pen handy Wednesday, and stopped the reconfiguration of a Lamar Advertising billboard on Highway 12 in the Green Oaks shopping center.
It was the second veto the mayor had issued that day. He first stopped - for the second time - the promotion of Starkville Fire Department Battalion Chief David Gaudin to fire chief.
The billboard in question sits on the Green Oaks Phase II shopping center development. An original site plan approved by the board slated it for removal.
“This is a violation of what the planning and zoning commission and the Board of Aldermen originally wanted,” said Camp, citing the original site plan removed the billboard.
“And besides, we're trying to have an attempt at beautifying out city, and I don't see how billboards work into that picture,” the mayor added.
The aldermen voted 4-3 Tuesday night to allow the amended site plan to move forward. Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins, Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey and Ward 3 Alderman P.C. “Mac” McLaurin Jr. voted against allowing the sign.
In the original site plan, which the aldermen approved some months back, the billboard, which today has a 45 degree cantilevered center mast over Christy's Hamburger, was to be removed. However, last month the site plan came back before the Starkville Planning and Zoning Commission with a request to amend the approved site plan, this time reconfiguring the existing billboard. The commissioners halted, saying they were uncomfortable with the sign since it reflects a non-conforming use according to the city's sign ordinance, which states billboards cannot be closer than 2,640 feet to one another. Lamar has another billboard 500 feet away. And the commissioners tabled the matter for further study.
A month later, at last Tuesday's P&Z meeting, the commissioners heard consultation from board attorney Rodney Faver, who did not believe the sign was in violation, since Lamar has no intention of moving the base, only reconfiguring the sign to straighten the mast-pole and remove the catwalk and lighting. The amended site plan passed the P&Z commissioners 5-2.
“I didn't have any problem with it (the billboard) either way,” said Dan Moreland, owner of the Green Oaks shopping center. Moreland also collects rent on the sign.
“But it could stay up or come down, it didn't matter to me,” Moreland added. “At some point I washed my hands of it and handed it over to Lamar for them to deal with.”
The billboard veto issued Wednesday, was Camp's sixth since he took office two years ago.

Source: The Commercial Dispatch by Skip Descant