County billboard debate loses some intensity

Monday, Nov. 3, 2003 | 10:57 a.m.

The debates that have been going on for years over where to put billboards in unincorporated parts of Clark County are not quite over.

While the debates may continue, however, the intensity of the disagreement has waned.

The Clark County Commission on Tuesday is scheduled to consider an ordinance that would eliminate the special-use permits that all billboards in the county are required to have. Eliminating the rule, which forces companies seeking to place a billboard to win a majority vote from the county commission, could help billboard companies, which have had a tough time getting approvals when any kind of waiver to the regulations are involved.

But the ordinance would make another change as well: The county would no longer consider any waivers. So only those signs that meet all conditions of the existing code could go up, a move that would restrict applications.

The new ordinance would replace one passed in February, less than one month after new Commissioners Rory Reid and Mark James replaced Erin Kenny and Dario Herrera. Some neighborhood activists had battled Kenny and Herrera, who had supported elements of the billboard industry's efforts, for years over the rules for billboards.

That ordinance, passed in February, restricted billboards along stretches of Interstate 215, the beltway, and Blue Diamond Road.

While Tuesday's ordinance might raise fears of a new battle, people on both sides of the old skirmishes said they do not have a problem with the rule changes.

Carolyn Edwards, a neighborhood activist who had fought with the billboard companies over the county rules, said it makes sense to drop the special-use permit requirement.

"I think the whole process of having them come in and constantly ask for waivers just takes up the commission's time," Edwards said. The rule change is "a way to clean up the process and make it run more smoothly.

"The billboard companies will know what they can and cannot do," she said. "There is definitely more predictability if the county says this is where you can do it, this is where you can't, and there are no waivers."

Mark Fiorentino, a Las Vegas attorney, represented the billboard industry through the years of squabbling over the rules during commission meetings. He said Friday that the Nevada Outdoor Media Association, the group representing the industry, no longer formally exists.

However, Fiorentino still represents Lamar Outdoor Advertising, a billboard company with a large presence in Southern Nevada.

"Lamar Outdoor Advertising has reviewed the ordinance and they're supportive of it," Fiorentino said.

"I don't know if we'll even testify on it."