Save the Date for a Billboard Conversation

The City of Tacoma needs to figure out what its next move(s) will be on the question of the 308 billboard faces in Tacoma that are currently out of compliance with City code. 

As the code is written right now, those billboards should come down, but the owner of most of the billboards in Tacoma, Clear Channel Outdoor, has not done that.

Clear Channel and the City entered into a standstill agreement, during which time a group of "stakeholders" in the matter (representatives of the billboard interests, and community members) convened during that time produced some suggestions for where the City might bend to compromise with Clear Channel in terms of size, location, and design considerations. Although the group by no means came to consensus, those recommendations were passed along to the Planning Commission, which studied them, heard public testimony, and made its own recommendations.

As presentated to the city council Infrastructure, Planning, and Sustainability Committee last week, the recommendations focus on an exchange program in which the billboard company would be encouraged to remove the worst offenders among its existing billboards, in exchange for being allowed to construct new billboards in more zones than currently allow them. The commission recommends some rules to guide that process to encourage the migration of billboards from places where they are definitely not wanted, to locations deemed more acceptable:

• A number of new zoning districts are made available for wall-mounted billboards 
• New pole-mounted billboards would only be allowed in “old” billboard zones
• New billboards would only be allowed in exchange for the removal of existing billboards
• The exchange program incorporates exchange ratios which encourage conversion of pole-mounted billboards to wall-mounted ones
• New pole-mounted billboards would be limited to 300 square feet
• Wall-mounted billboards would get additional flexibilities relative to height, size and certain other standards (in some cases with special staff review)
• Revised standards relative to physical characteristics, including height, design, illumination, landscaping, and maintenance
• Reduced requirements for dispersal and buffering from sensitive uses and zones
• Retain amortization, and provide a two-tiered amortization extension period to remove all non-conforming billboards (three years for certain billboards and five years for others)

These rules aren't final yet, and a resolution on this week's council meeting consent agenda would set a November 17 public hearing by the city council on the proposed changes. 

(UPDATE: The hearing will be delayed to allow City staff to develop an alternative to the Planning Commission recommendations. Stay tuned.)

If the issues between the parties are not resolved during the standstill period, either party has the right to reengage in the legal process. Roughly two-thirds of public testimony before the Planning Commission was anti-billboard, with most of those opposed favoring an amortization approach to removal of the non-complying signs, and, if necessary, supporting a legal battle with the company.

If you have opinions one way or another on billboards in Tacoma, November 17 would be a good time to make them heard.

Want to know more? Hear the IPS Committee presentation and conversation, and download presentation materials here.