View Full Version : I-40 Billboards



Patrick
09-15-2004, 11:05 AM
Well, the billboard debate is going to the council on Oct. 5th. Looks like Foshee is going to vote in favor of banning billboards from I-40. Although I don't always agree with Foshee, his explanation makes a lot of sense.

At first I was all in favor of billboards on the new Crosstown, but I think I might be slowly changing my mind. Whoever it was that brought up Lake Hefner Parkway made a lot of sense. I enjoy driving that stretch because it's free of clutter.

And banning billboards would prevent the whole free speech problem in the first place.

Banning billboards would also draw people's attention to landmarks, like the skyline and Bass Pro off to the north side.

I know, call me a flip-flopper! I just see the complexities in issues! :o

What do you think?
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"City leaders debate billboard ban
by Heidi R. Centrella
The Journal Record
9/15/2004



Much debate has risen regarding the moratorium on billboards placed along the path of Interstate 40. In three weeks, Oklahoma City Council members will decide whether to keep, compromise or ban billboards.
Council members voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend the moratorium until the Oct. 5 vote.

According to Jann Hook, co-chair of the I-40 Design Enhancement Committee, a group comprised of about 90 citizens and community leaders met several times to discuss the matter. Charged with addressing art, landscaping and design for elements along the new highway and the boulevard, which would be the current I-40, the overriding recommendation was for a "simple, classic, uncluttered design." Another recommendation was "to eliminate visual clutter and the proliferation of billboards that plague the existing roadway."

Hook said the group agreed that billboards diminish "the unique character of the city," and that Oklahoma City would, ultimately, begin to look like every other city that's overrun with billboards.

"They do not present the positive image of the city that we're hoping for," Hook said, adding that the group's priority was to protect the views of the downtown skyline, the river and public art.

"In addition to blocking views of our natural and man-made features, billboards would certainly detract from the design enhancement that the committee recommended and that we continue to work with (the Oklahoma Department of Transportation) to see implemented," Hook said. "This group is not anti-sign, they're not anti-business. These are places where we don't feel billboards would be appropriate, and to allow billboards to be constructed based on current zoning along a highway that won't be completed for many years seems extremely shortsighted."

However, the "visual clutter" is one thing Cattlemen's Steakhouse owner Dick Stubbs credited for his 30 percent increase in sales over the past several years.

"According to Oklahoma City Beautiful, I am a polluter," Stubbs said.

Stubbs has two billboards on I-40, both of which he said are valuable to his business and neighbors, who drive sales taxes.

In 1991, Stubbs put up his first billboard on west-bound I-40, just east of the Agnew exit. At that time, he said, Cattlemen's was struggling to survive. But after the billboard was installed, his business jumped 15 percent. Two years later, in 1993, Stubbs erected an east-bound sign that pushed business up yet another 15 percent.

Today, he said he believed those billboards are driving about 25 percent of his business.

Cattlemen's produced $518,000 in sales tax over the past 12 months.

"What that equals is today we have 420,000 customers eating at Cattlemen's. We are bringing people off the interstate. And our neighbors are using our signs to direct people to their business," Stubbs said.

After meeting several times with Oklahoma City Beautiful and other organizations, Stubbs said a compromise was proposed by the City Planning Department that would have included no signs on the south side of the river and no more than seven or eight signs on the north side of the river. He said over the course of subsequent meetings the groups discussed several compromises that he felt were moving toward a solution.

"When it came time for the City Planning supervisor to ask us if we support this, Oklahoma City Beautiful said 'No.' They wanted a total ban," Stubbs said. "We felt we were negotiating in good faith, apparently we were not."

The compromised solution, he said, would have allowed three to four signs in the industrial area.

"I'm sure my signs are prettier than the back of a pipe yard, and that's what is there now," Stubbs said.

"If my business goes down 25 percent, I could have to cut 25 percent of my payroll, which would be approximately 50 jobs."

Allen Paine, a representative of Oklahoma City Beautiful, said the organization's primary mission is to improve the image of Oklahoma City.

"We're trying to protect the vista for our downtown and our riverfront," Paine said.

According to Paine, the city's Planning Department conducted an inventory of signs along the current I-40, and less than 5 percent of those signs were downtown businesses that were directing drivers to their location.

While City Councilman Sam Bowman, Ward 2, said he hopes a compromise can be reached so that business owners such as Stubbs won't suffer from a billboard ban, he said representatives on both sides must find a way to rise above compromise and sales tax issues.

"This is bigger than (sales tax and compromise)," Bowman said. "This is an opportunity for us, with 100,000 cars driving through Oklahoma City to get the biggest and best snapshot of what this city represents. We've got to rise above the discussions of sales tax and compromise."

But City Councilman Jerry Foshee, Ward 5, expressed other concerns with regard to the billboards - that of First Amendment rights - all the while expressing sentiment for potential damage to business owners who rely on their billboards.

"One thing we need to consider is we are promoting downtown as a family entertainment type of city, and once we allow these billboards … you have First Amendment rights, and we can't control a whole lot of what goes up on these billboards," Foshee said.

"As we have people coming into the Bricktown area, my problem that I see is if we allow billboards to come into this corridor, we can have pictures of scantily clad young ladies advertising gentlemen's clubs and various other natures. So, we spent a lot of money in trying to beautify the downtown area and I agree that we don't need any additional billboards in an area that our taxpayers have spent a tremendous amount of money."

Foshee did, however, ask that council members be aware that it is the businesses that pay the bills and are important to the city, "no matter what kind of business it is or where it is or what they do."

Dale Cottingham, an attorney representing Lamar Outdoor Advertising, said the best strategy for Oklahoma City would be to allow a certain number of billboards. This, he said, was a compromise that Lamar was willing to support and did support during the Planning Commission phase.

"It's a compromise that the people we've already heard from are not willing to entertain," Cunningham said. "We understand the investment that has been made by Oklahoma City in the downtown area; however, people that drive through may not be aware of activities that are going on, of certain aspects of this city. Advertisement allows the message to get out. Advertisement is a critical strategy, it seems to me, to accomplish the goals the city has for itself."