Tighter billboard rules proposed

Thursday, June 7, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

Clark County commissioners on Wednesday introduced an ordinance that could dramatically limit the ability of billboard companies to place their products in residential areas.

The proposal goes to a public hearing, and a possible commission vote, June 20. For the billboard companies, it is a dramatic reversal from early May, when their own ordinance was rejected by the commissioners.

The industry did not speak out on the issue during Wednesday's zoning meeting, but representatives have said that they oppose nearly every element of the proposal.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who supported the new ordinance and opposed the old one, took out one component that especially irked the industry -- a requirement that companies remove one billboard for every new sign that went into use.

But perhaps the provision most troubling to the industry -- that no waivers to the new law be accepted -- remained.

Other elements of the proposal include:

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who wrote the original proposal with members of the billboard industry, criticized the process.

She said the original proposal, which would have given county commissioners the final say on all billboard applications but did not include a defined district for the signs, was "poorly represented by the media and improperly represented by (county) staff."

"I don't believe in overlay districts," Kenny said.

She said her ordinance would have cut the number of billboards in the existing district -- very similar to what the district proposed Wednesday -- through a "tacit understanding" with the billboard industry to reduce signs 15 percent.

The Clark County Commission could be trusted to keep the number of signs in control countywide, she said.

"I feel very confident that we can make those decisions," Kenny said.

M.J. Harvey, Paradise Town Advisory Board chairwoman, said she didn't agree. Town board members, who advise the commission on land use issues, have embraced the new ordinance, she said.

Particularly important are the districts that keep billboards out of residential areas, Harvey said.

Lisa Mayo de Riso, a Spring Valley resident in southwest Las Vegas, said Kenny and other commissioners have approved billboards along Sahara Avenue, in commercial zoning areas, yet near residential neighborhoods.

"We don't have the time to police the County Commission every single time a billboard comes on the agenda," she said. "An overlay district ... That gives you as a resident some peace of mind."

About a dozen industry representatives walked out of the zoning meeting after the ordinance was introduced.