Pend Oreille Commissioners Slap Moratorium On Billboards Giant Signs Along U.S. Highway 2 Prompt Study, Plan For Hearings

The Black Velvet lady may not be able to stretch out when Pend Oreille County officials get done trimming her billboard. The Marlboro Man may need a smaller horse.

County commissioners slapped a moratorium on new billboards after several giant signs mushroomed within the past two months along U.S. Highway 2 between Diamond Lake and Newport.

The nine-member county Planning Commission has been directed to study the issue, take public testimony and make a recommendation before the six-month moratorium expires.

Spokesmen for the affected billboard companies were not available for comment.

Commissioner Joel Jacobsen of Newport said he and his wife were shocked recently when they returned from a brief trip and discovered a semi-truck-sized billboard just outside the city.

Jacobsen said he would be upset even if he didn’t own two acres of undeveloped property next to one of the new signs.

“The reason people live up here, often, is because it is beautiful,” Jacobsen said. “All of a sudden it’s not as beautiful as it was before.”

One of his constituents calls billboards “litter on a stick,” Jacobsen added.

He sees something more insidious in the giant orange-and-black board just west of Newport that promotes satellite television service: “You go by that thing every day and that thing sucks your brain and sucks your brain, and pretty soon you’ve got to have it.”

Most residents of Pend Oreille and other rural northeastern Washington counties loathe regulations and treasure property rights. So Jacobsen had to try for three weeks before he got a second from Commissioner Karl McKenzie, a fellow Democrat, to declare the moratorium.

“I kind of felt a little bit out there by myself when I started this,” but support is starting to roll in, Jacobsen said. “I haven’t had a single person say, ‘Hey, I want more billboards.’ Not one.”

Billboards affect neighbors’ property rights by blocking sunlight and views and by reducing values, Jacobsen argued.

Even Commission Chairman Mike Hanson, a Republican and a conservative Christian, signed on after considering the possibility of a curvaceous Black Velvet woman sprawled across 50 feet of horizon.

“I don’t want to see us become the alcohol and tobacco advertising capital of northeastern Washington,” Hanson said.

“To advertise the top two killers in our country, to me that’s asinine.”

Still, Hanson would prefer not to regulate the content of billboards. He said he hopes billboard companies, land owners who lease space for billboards and consumers will banish Joe Camel and Spuds McKenzie from the landscape.

Hanson is prepared to cut the size of billboards, though, and to regulate their location and illumination. The 576-square-foot state maximum size, typically 12 by 48 feet, could “reasonably be cut in half,” Hanson suggested.

Also, he said, “We should have some low-intensity lighting so you don’t think you’re coming into another town because there’s a billboard ahead of you.”

The commissioners don’t like the idea of using Pend Oreille real estate to promote out-of-county businesses, but recognize there’s nothing they can do about that.

“Whatever we do, if you have a business, you will be able to advertise it here,” Jacobsen said. “You just may not be able to advertise it on a billboard that’s 50 feet wide.”

Still, he cited one of the new billboards near Newport and grumbled, “It doesn’t do our motel business a lot of good to have people drive through to Connie’s Motel in Sandpoint.”

Another sign promotes Dodge trucks, but there’s only a Ford dealership in Newport. The back side of that sign asks motorists whether they stop for red lights.

“There isn’t a single red light in Pend Oreille County,” Jacobsen noted.

A representative of Pridemark Outdoor Advertising in Spokane declined to comment on other issues, but said the “red light” sign simply hasn’t been changed since it was moved from Spokane. Similarly, the company’s new sign near Diamond Lake, about seven miles from Newport, is still blank.

Pridemark has permits for two more billboards that haven’t been erected yet, one near Diamond Lake and one near Newport. They are unaffected by the moratorium.

When commissioners imposed the moratorium Nov. 26, Pridemark representative Wayne Kuntz argued that well-done billboards aren’t offensive. He said Pridemark doesn’t limit the types of advertising it accepts, but people who lease land for billboards may set restrictions.

Obie Media Corp. also has some of the half-dozen or so billboards in Newport and the unincorporated area between the city and Diamond Lake. The moratorium and any regulations county commissioners adopt would apply only to signs outside city limits.

Commissioners don’t plan any regulation of signs for businesses located on the same property.

Planning Director Gary Fergen said he plans to submit a draft ordinance to the Planning Commission next month for discussion. He said county commissioners suggested that the draft should address size, lighting and protection of residential areas.

Fergen hopes the Planning Commission will conduct a hearing and make recommendations to county commissioners in February. That would allow county commissioners to conduct another hearing in March and make a decision before the moratorium expires in late May.

The county can adopt some of the billboard regulations that most local governments already have, he said.

County Prosecutor Tom Metzger said commissioners have broad authority to regulate or even ban off-premise billboards. In the absence of local regulations, the decision falls to the state Transportation Department.

Under state law, billboards are allowed only in industrial or commercial zones. In counties like Pend Oreille that have no zoning, the Transportation Department may declare an “undesignated commercial zone” in any unincorporated area where there are three or more businesses within 500 feet.

Billboards may be placed as much as 500 feet outside undesignated commercial zones, but the signs must be at least 500 feet apart from each other.

Regional Traffic Engineer Bob Earnest said the stretch of U.S. Highway 20 from Diamond Lake to Newport is the only place where there are now enough businesses to allow billboards. He said no billboards are allowed on State Route 20, from Newport to Republic in Ferry County, because the highway is designated a “scenic route.” , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos