A digital sign operated elsewhere by a Lamar subsidiary.

POTTSTOWN PA – One of those flashy, computerized, full-color electronic billboards that greet drivers in both directions on U.S. Route 422 near the Oaks interchange may be coming closer to home on the same highway.

The Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Hearing Board, in an advertisement that appeared Wednesday (Nov. 17, 2010) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, said it would hear the request of an advertising company to replace a “tri-vision billboard sign” already at 223 Porter Rd., Pottstown PA, with a new sign carrying “electronic changeable message faces.”

The newspaper is the township’s official publication of record for legal notices.

The hearing is set for Dec. 14 (Tuesday) at 6 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., on the application made by Lamar Advertising of Penn LLC, 600 E. Neversink Rd., Reading PA. It owns the sign, and made the request with the permission of the property owner involved, who was not identified. Although its base would sit on Porter Road, the sign would be seen from 422.

Lamar’s request has already been denied by the township zoning office, which issued its ruling in September (2010). The hearing constitutes an appeal by Lamar of that decision. The company also is challenging the validity of the township zoning law that specifically limits the size of electronic signs and the frequency with which their messages can be changed.

Township law currently allows only one message every 24 hours. The billboards at Oaks, in comparison, change their messages once every 10-15 seconds.

The property is zone for industrial use, and is located near the township sewer pumping station on Porter Road.

At the same meeting, the zoning board will hear a request by a Danny Road, Pottstown PA, homeowner to install an in-ground swimming pool.

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