Tuesday, April 17, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.
Leo van der Harst has fought billboards near his Henderson neighborhood before, but he fears the companies that erect the signs will try again.
The retired man's fears might be justified. Next time, however, the rules of the game could be much different.
A Clark County commissioner and the billboard industry have teamed up to rewrite the rules governing the placement of billboards throughout unincorporated areas of the county, including areas near van der Harst's home.
Clark County planning staffers warn that the new rules could lead to more billboards throughout the county.
Commissioners on Wednesday will consider an ordinance that could dramatically increase the number of billboards in the county, a prospect that has some people -- including county staffers -- concerned.
The ordinance came out of a committee that consisted of billboard industry representatives and Commissioner Erin Kenny and her staff.
Kenny and industry representatives say the proposed ordinance is more restrictive than the one currently on the books; the existing rule generally allows billboards within an "overlay district," which consists mainly of the Strip and the adjacent Interstate 15.
The ordinance would allow billboards in most commercial or manufacturing zones throughout the county, but only with a special use permit from the county commission. The proposal as written also would prohibit billboards within 300 feet of existing or planned homes, tripling the existing requirements, and require a 500-foot separation between signs.
If the ordinance is successfully introduced by Kenny, it could go to a public hearing and be passed into law on May 2.
Members of the county's town boards, advisory panels that help guide land use in the county, have privately expressed concern that they weren't included in the drafting of the ordinance.
Environmentalists are more outspoken on the issue. Jane Feldman, conservation committee co-chairwoman for the local arm of the Sierra Club, said town board members and environmentalists should have been part of the process to draft the ordinance.
Fred Dexter, a member of the conservation group, said he has concerns over the impact of the proposed ordinance.
"When they start distributing billboards in an unregulated fashion around the county, a great deal of our scenery is going to be impacted," Dexter said Monday.
He said the Sierra Club, which has worked for decades to curb advertising that blocks views of natural areas, will take a close look at the ordinance.
Also closely studying the ordinance are members of the county planning staff. Chuck Pulsipher, a Current Planning Division zoning administrator, said his department did not participate in drafting the ordinance.
The department is still analyzing the potential effect of the new rules, he said.
"Certainly it will lead to more signs," Pulsipher said. "Will it result in signs everywhere, visible from every place in the county? Certainly not.
"Some arterial streets could conceivably have signs every 500 feet," he said.
One example would be Blue Diamond Road, which is mostly a commercial district for miles as it winds from the south side into the hills west of the valley.
Barbara Ginoulias, assistant director of the county's Comprehensive Planning Department and chief of current planning, said staff members typically have input into a new ordinance, but did not in this case.
"We took the language that was delivered to us by the sign industry and put it into ordinance form," she said. "We did not change the context. We did not participate in the meetings."
The planning department has concerns about the proposal, including "visual clutter and impact on residential neighborhoods," she said.
Van der Harst said he is concerned about the potential effect of the ordinance on his area, along Eastern and Pecos roads near the Beltway.
Van der Harst said the existing rule defining the overlay district has helped him and his neighbors defeat proposed billboards in his area.
"I've got nothing against it if the place they are putting it is solidly commercial," but the new ordinance would make "it a hell of a lot easier for the billboard guys to come in and do something," he said.
Van der Harst said he will attend Wednesday's meeting to air his concerns.
Industry representatives and Kenny said the concerns are misplaced.
"When you look at it from a balanced approach, it's probably twice as restrictive as other ordinances," said Don Krueger, vice president of Connell Outdoor Advertising, a billboard company.
Kenny, who received about $2,600 in campaign contributions from Connell competitor Donrey Outdoor Advertising in 1998, said she also believes that the ordinance will better protect residential areas from billboards.
The ordinance "will put power back in the hand of county commissioners, where I think it belongs," she said.
"If you were in the overlay district, you got to go in," she said. The restrictions in the new rule "are very severe," she added.
Kenny said she and her staff represented the interests of residents during the ordinance's drafting.
In talks to draft the rules the industry granted concessions that Kenny said will improve the visual clutter of signs in the Strip area.
"The industry has agreed to take down 15 percent of existing signs that don't agree with the new ordinance," she said. "I think that's a tremendous benefit to the entire community."
Krueger said the existing ordinance has to move aside for a new rule, in part because exemptions granted by the county commissioners to the current law have made that law vulnerable to a legal challenge.
Although local advertising firms haven't challenged the existing rule or its application by the county commissioners, "out-of-state firms who decide to come to Las Vegas won't be so respectful of not challenging it," Krueger said.
Kenny said she has seen successful challenges in California and other areas.
"It always makes sense to be proactive, to draft ordinances that are comprehensive and fair," she said.
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