Editorial: What was their big hurry?

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 10:06 a.m.

On Wednesday the Clark County Commission amended its ordinance that restricts where billboards can be placed. Under one provision of the new ordinance, the County Commission will have to approve any new signs, even if they're located in the billboard district where they're allowed. The new ordinance also will require that signs must be at least 300 feet from a home.

Commissioners Erin Kenny and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey lauded the new ordinance. "It seems to me that this protects the residents better than anything else," Kincaid-Chauncey said. Despite Kincaid-Chauncy's assurances, the way the majority of the County Commission handled this matter doesn't inspire much confidence. The commission had been considering a new billboard ordinance for eight months, so it was disturbing that a draft of the ordinance that passed on Wednesday by a 4-3 vote wasn't made public until just moments before the commission's meeting that day. Not only that, but the ordinance was written largely by the billboard industry itself, which was plenty of reason to give the proposal more than just a cursory glance. And we thought we only had to worry about the lobbyists running the Nevada Legislature.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who voted against the ordinance, aptly put it this way: "If this is a good proposal today, why wouldn't it be a good proposal at our next meeting? Why does this need to jam through?" Commissioner Myrna Williams also lamented the fact that she saw the industry-backed proposal just "one minute before we walked back here." The push to get the industry-sponsored ordinance passed was so hurried that two other proposals weren't even considered for a vote. One proposal was an earlier compromise version that had received input from all sides. The second proposed ordinance was drafted by the commission's staff, but the industry was against it.

The industry did make some concessions, such as agreeing that billboard companies couldn't seek waivers to place their signs outside the billboard district. It is questionable, though, whether the ordinance's requirement that billboards be at least 300 feet away from homes -- the same distance found in all three proposals -- is restrictive enough. A billboard that is just the length of a football field away does seem too close for comfort.

It's often said that the devil is in the details. We just hope that no surprises in the form of loopholes subsequently are discovered that end up giving the billboard industry greater leeway to put up its signs than is believed to be the case now.