Commissioners delay decision on billboards

Thursday, July 19, 2001 | 10:30 a.m.

A Clark County proposal to limit placement of new billboards won't be decided for at least another three weeks.

The issue, which has split the county commissioners, was held by the commission until Aug. 8. Representatives from the billboard industry said the hold will give them time to reach a consensus with county staff and activists who drafted the latest billboard proposal.

The hold came despite protests from Paradise Town Advisory Board Chairwoman M. J. Harvey, who said a consensus is unlikely.

"This thing has gone on for a long, long time," she said.

The issue surfaced in April, after Commissioner Erin Kenny and the billboard industry wrote and submitted an ordinance that would do away with the "overlay district," an area where billboards were by county rule acceptable.

The district was roughly bordered by Sahara Avenue, the Las Vegas Beltway, Paradise Road and Decatur Avenue, but the commission had approved many of the signs outside the area.

Kenny said she had an agreement from the industry to remove some signs -- what she called "visual blight" -- in exchange for ending the overlay district. But her proposal faced stiff opposition from county planning staff and community land-use advisory boards.

Comm -issioner Yvonne Atkinson-Gates then proposed another ordinance that would keep the overlay district. The industry opposed the alternative.

Mark Fiorentino, a land-use attorney and representative from the Nevada Outdoor Media Association, a trade group, said the delay in discussing the issue will give the industry time to work for a trio of amendments to Gates' ordinance.

The amendments they seek include allowing waivers for billboards outside the overlay area, increasing the size of the overlay district and reducing the separation requirements between the signs, he said.