Editorial: Paint over billboard proposal

Monday, April 23, 2001 | 9:07 a.m.

Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny wants to dramatically change where billboards can be placed, but the commission should reject this misguided proposal. Currently billboards in unincorporated Clark County are restricted to a rectangular-sized district that reaches from the Las Vegas Beltway in the south up to Sahara Avenue, then extends from Paradise Road in the east out to Decatur Boulevard.

Granted, billboard companies can get exemptions now, but as Sun reporter Launce Rake noted Thursday, Kenny's ordinance would allow billboards in nearly all commercial or manufacturing districts in the county. It also isn't comforting that the new ordinance would allow billboards to be as close as 300 feet to homes, 150 feet to apartments and 500 feet to other billboards. It's hard to imagine that this wouldn't lead to even more clutter than the valley already has now.

One red flag about this proposal is how it got here in the first place. Kenny worked with just the billboard industry in developing the new plan, shutting out the commission's staff for its input. The town boards, which are advisory councils for the commission, also were excluded from participation in the development of this proposed ordinance. If someone wanted to devise a recipe on how to make bad legislation, this proposed ordinance's path so far would be a good example.

The County Commission could take a vote on this proposal as soon as May 2. If it does, the commission should defeat this special-interest legislation. Rather than expanding the amount of blight that a proliferation of billboards could create, the County Commission should be addressing ways to reduce the number of billboards that already litter the valley.