Council hopes compromise will settle billboard battle

Diana Sahagun

Monday, May 15, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

In an effort to appease the billboard industry, the North Las Vegas City Council will introduce a newly crafted ordinance Wednesday designed to ease restrictions.

For more than nine months the council and billboard industry attorney Mark Fiorentino have tugged back and forth over a proposed ordinance that would limit billboards to areas within 100 feet of Interstate 15. After 10 years, all nonconforming signs would have to be taken down.

The prospect of being forced to remove the signs, a process called amortization, turned into a sticking point with Fiorentino, representing the Nevada Outdoor Media Association.

Fiorentino maintains it is illegal to require a business to remove a sign without compensation.

"You are going to get sued, it's guaranteed," Fiorentino told the Planning Commission when it passed the ordinance 4-3 in September.

At the council's last meeting, Fiorentino asked the members to consider drafting a new ordinance with the billboard industry's concerns taken into consideration.

A compromise produced a proposed ordinance to be introduced this week. It would allow billboards 300 feet from I-15 or within 50 feet of Rancho Drive.

It also gives special consideration to those billboards affected by the amortization clause.

According to the ordinance, any sign that becomes nonconforming under the new ordinance would be allowed to be relocated 500 feet from an existing sign on I-15.

The council will still have to vote next month whether to approve the original proposal or the compromise.

The proposal mirrors a Henderson ordinance, which limits the signs to the areas along Boulder Highway and U.S. 95. Vicki Taylor, spokeswoman for Henderson, said so far the city has not been sued over the ordinance.