Reno billboards are subject of dueling petitions

Monday, July 17, 2000 | 9:52 a.m.

The billboard industry says the signs are a part of life in a 24-hour tourist town. Citizens for a scenic Reno calls them a blight.

Each side has until July 28 to collect 6,790 valid signatures. The billboard backers want to see more go up. The opponents wants the number frozen at current levels.

And each side accuses the other of misrepresenting their petitions and tricking people into signing them.

Doug Smith, who heads the antis, says the billboard industry's petition was a political decision, made by their public relations firm to divide and conquer.

"What they're doing is causing mass confusion so that on Nov. 7 the Reno voter will be confused as to which ballot question is which."

Dan Schulte, general manager for Donrey Outdoor, said Smith's group is the one confusing voters.

He said Citizens for a Scenic Reno is scaring voters into believing the billboard industry wants to erect hundreds of new billboards and that many of those signs will display ads for liposuction and breast implants, he said.

One voter confused by the dueling petitions is Reno businessman Larry Pizorno. Two weeks ago, billboard backers approached Pizorno outside the Vassar Street post office with their petition.

Pizorno signed it because he said he thought it was Citizens for Scenic Reno's petition and that it would result in fewer billboards in the city, not more.

"It was really deceiving," Pizorno said. "If it was up to me, there wouldn't be any billboards at all."

Citizens for Scenic Reno began circulating its petition first, on March 30. So far, the group has collected 9,000 signatures and still is trying to get more in case some are rejected.

That petition asks that the construction of new billboards be prohibited. The 278 existing billboards would be allowed to stay, although their numbers eventually would decrease as properties are developed or roads are widened and signs come down.

The billboard companies filed their petition with the Reno city clerk June 30. So far, they have collected about 4,000 signatures.

The Nevada Outdoor Media Association, which consists of four major billboard companies and several smaller ones, decided to circulate its own petition after conducting a public-opinion poll that they say showed 70 percent of the people thought banning all new billboards is too extreme.

"We decided if we could get our own petition on the ballot, we could make it clear," Schulte said. The industry petition says billboards in Reno shall be permitted only on property zoned for commercial or industrial uses.

What that petition doesn't say is that until now, new billboards in Reno have been allowed only on industrial-zoned properties.

Smith's group says the pro-billboard ordinance could result in 598 new billboard sites, a figure that Schulte's group vehemently disagrees with.

The billboard industry supports a cap of 350 total billboards for now with a yet-to-be-determined growth factor that would allow the number of billboards to increase along with the population, Schulte said.