Pend Oreille Commissioners Restrict Billboards

Despite protests that they were infringing on property rights, Pend Oreille County commissioners slapped tough new restrictions on billboards Monday.

The ordinance effectively eliminates new commercial billboards in the county, according to Casey Gray, vice president of Pridemark Outdoor Advertising.

Gray said the minimum standard billboard size is 300 square feet, but the ordinance sets a maximum of 100 square feet. He said signs smaller than 300 square feet are too hard for motorists to read.

Commissioner Mike Hanson voted against the ordinance after commissioners Joel Jacobsen and Karl McKenzie rejected his proposal to set the maximum billboard size at 300 square feet and allow limited lighting.

The new ordinance applies only to “off-premise” signs in unincorporated portions of the county, not to signs for businesses at the same site. Previously, state regulations allowed all kinds of signs up to 672 square feet - typically 14 by 48 feet.

The new ordinance also requires 1,000 feet between billboards, twice the state minimum, and limits them to 25 feet in height. It tightens the rules for determining when a collection of three businesses constitutes a commercial zone in which billboards may be erected.

County officials believed most of the sites currently allowed by state law had been taken, but Gray said Pridemark has been negotiating for two or three more locations.

Commissioners imposed a six-month moratorium in January after Pridemark and Obie Media Corp. erected several of the giant signs on U.S. Highway 2 between Diamond Lake and Newport.

Two weeks ago, commissioners discovered that the county Planning Commission sent them an ordinance that improperly called for billboards even larger than state law allows. Most of the testimony at that hearing, unlike Monday’s, was against billboards.

At the time, there was only a week to go before the moratorium expired. Unable to extend the moratorium, commissioners gave Planning Director Gary Fergen just two weeks to rewrite the proposal. Testimony Monday on the new version was mixed, but several people said they oppose any further infringement of property rights even though some of them don’t like billboards.

“If people own the land and they can make some money by putting a billboard on it, then it ought to be their business to do it,” said businessman Mitch Brown. “… I don’t really like billboards very much, but it’s a property rights issue, and I always weigh in on the side of property rights.”

That’s like “agreeing to be married but refusing to be responsible for the children that are produced by that marriage,” said teacher Sandra Meade.

Jim McDonald, owner of J&S Welding & Machine, said he asked his neighbors about the big Pridemark billboard on his land near Newport and none objected. But Commission Chairman Jacobsen reminded McDonald that he owns property next door and did object.

McDonald said Pridemark pays him $3,300 a year to use his land.

Pridemark’s Gray said his company supports regulation because “the more billboards there are, the less money we make.” But he said current state regulations are adequate.

In addition to the size limit in the county ordinance, Gray objected to a ban on lighting.

Obie Media was not represented at the meeting. Testimony indicated state officials want Obie to remove one of its Pend Oreille County billboards because of setback violations.

, DataTimes