Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Page 9
Council Committee Hears Options To Implement Recently Passed Billboard Ordinance
By a MetNews Staff Writer
There are two viable options with different time frames for implementing the city’s recently passed ordinance requiring inspection certificates and annual inspection fees for billboards, a city official told a council committee yesterday.
With an estimated 40 percent of the city’s 10,000 billboards being illegal, code enforcement officer David Keim told the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, the city will have to survey and catalogue all of the billboards.
The job can be done in one year if the city adds 49 new staff positions, , but the idea isn’t very feasible, Keim said.
Keim said he favors a four-year “phase-in” approach, which he said would require 20 additional staff members to conduct the survey over a four-year period.
The initial survey and necessary follow-up enforcement for the billboards would cost $1.4 million to be repaid by proposed annual fees of $155 per billboard, Keim said.
But initiating the process of inspecting the 10,000 billboards citywide means more need for manpower and initial funding, which hasn’t been approved yet, he said.
The matter has been referred to the Budget and Finance Committee, with the matter set to come back before the Planning and Land Use Management Committee next month.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company