The red circle on this Google satellite image shows the Porter Road location where Lamar Advertising's existing billboards will be swapped for newer, digital versions.
SANATOGA PA – Outdoor billboard company Lamar Advertising of Penn LLC will be allowed to erect lighted digital signs, which display advertising messages that change every 10 seconds, atop a Porter Road, Pottstown PA, support structure that’s been in place since 1999, the Lower Pottsgrove Township Zoning Hearing Board unanimously decided Tuesday night (April 19, 2011).
Hearing board acceptance of the Reading PA firm’s proposal ends months of promised legal fights and subsequent negotiations between Lamar and the township. The Board of Commissioners initially opposed, and then ultimately reached a deal on, Lamar’s use of the billboards that resemble giant flat-screen televisions and will face traffic on all four lanes of U.S. Route 422 near the Armand Hammer Boulevard interchange.
Township law limits the physical size of some advertising signs in certain zones, and makes few if any provisions for frequently changing messages. “What you’re telling us is that the technology has changed but the ordinance hasn’t … that the relief you want reflects the technology you’re using,” board attorney Robert Brant said. “That’s exactly right,” replied Lamar attorney James Lillis.
“Billboard boom: The future of out-of-home advertising is rosy, and digital”
The Economist; April 20, 2011
Lamar considers the Porter Road site, which currently supports a different and older set of billboards, “an important part of its inventory,” Lillis said. Their messages also change, and more frequently (every 5 seconds, but without internal lighting) than the new signs will. “But current market conditions demand a digital sign,” he noted.
The commissioners’ agreement with Lamar, reached in recent weeks and approved by the board during its April 4 meeting, limits the frequency of changes and the brightness of the lighting. It also gives the township opportunities to use the billboards for its own public announcements or emergency notifications.
Lamar had indicated it would challenge the legality of the township sign ordinance, first with the hearing board and later in civil courts if necessary, to ensure it could continue operating locally. Commission President Jonathan Spadt in January said the board was attempting to find a compromise with Lamar and avoid what could be a costly showdown.
Both sides “agreed to come to terms rather than fight a long legal battle,” Lillis, of the Kozloff Stout law firm in Wyomissing PA, said following the hearing board decision.
Related:
- Lamar Wins Township Approval For TV-Like Billboards
- Hearings Scheduled For National Penn’s Sanatoga Sign
- Lower Pottsgrove, Lamar Negotiating Over Sign Request
- All Signs Point To More Township Signage Talk Tonight
- Anticipated Township Billboard Battle Gets A Reprieve
- Legal Fight Shapes Up Over Signs In Lower Pottsgrove
- Advertisers Propose Colorful, Electronic Sign In Township
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ April 4 meeting):
- Lamar Wins Township Approval For TV-Like Billboards
- Drug Take-Back Event Returns To Lower Pottsgrove
- Trout Rodeo Launches Six Weeks of Township Fun
Allowing these signs to employed by the Fire Department to announce accidents and road obstructions, as well as other Emergencies like tornadoes and the like, would be of great benefit to all on 422.
Will also be important that they not be so interesting as to distract drivers from their prime role.
Meanwhile our Townships legal assistants should embark upon an effort to update our ordinances to address the distraction issue as well as how and when emergency services might use the signs.
Amber Alerts come to mind as another possible utility
All those suggestions seem worthwhile, Ed. Thanks for making them!