Billboards Loom Over State Road Project Officials Want To Move Signs To Widen Trent, But County Ordinance Is Blocking The Plan

The future of a multimillion-dollar road project in the Spokane Valley may hinge on the fate of 14 billboards.

The Washington Department of Transportation wants to widen Trent Avenue between Fancher and Sullivan roads as part of a safety-improvement project.

The work, which would cost $5 million to $10 million, would add a two-way left-turn lane to that stretch of Trent, said Al Gilson, DOT spokesman in Spokane.

The six-mile leg has one of the highest collision rates in Eastern Washington. Much of the stretch is four lanes with no designated turn lane, except at traffic signals.

Cars trying to turn left off Trent often are struck from behind while waiting to turn.

“It’s a pretty important project,” Gilson said this week. “That has been designated as a high-accident corridor.”

But the 14 billboards may act as roadblocks.

The large signs stand on Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway property on the south side of Trent, right in the path of the extra lane DOT wants to build.

They advertise everything from beer to auto parts.

The railroad is willing to grant an easement for the road project, but only if DOT agrees to move the billboards onto BNSF property farther south, Gilson said.

BNSF apparently generates a large amount of income from leasing its land to billboard companies, he said.

Moving the signs wouldn’t be a problem, except that Spokane County commissioners passed a billboard ban last fall that would prohibit such a move.

State transportation officials have requested that county commissioners amend the ban so they can move the 14 signs on Trent and proceed with the widening project.

That request will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the commissioner’s hearing room in the lower level of the Public Works Building, 1026 W. Broadway.

Other solutions aren’t viable, Gilson said.

DOT doesn’t have enough money to buy out the railroad’s contracts with the billboard companies or purchase acres and acres of private property on the north side of Trent for the project, he said.

“Do we have the revenue to do that? Probably not,” Gilson said. “It could run into a substantial amount of money.”

One billboard critic offered another alternative.

“We would like officials with BNSF to assist us in our cleanup, which is we want to take down the billboards,” said Suzanne Markham, president of Citizens for a Scenic Spokane. “Instead of asking Spokane County to bend the laws, they should be good citizens and discontinue their contracts with the billboard companies. They’re basically holding the Washington Department of Transportation hostage.”

Markham’s group was one of the lead proponents of the county ordinance banning new billboards.

Attempts to reach railroad officials in Spokane were unsuccessful.

County Commissioner John Roskelley, a billboard opponent himself, said he is trying to broker a deal between the railroad and the state.

Roskelley said he’s talked to at least one BNSF official who has hinted he wants the billboards taken down altogether.

“I have reason to believe that he would like to see some more negotiations to get rid of these billboards,” Roskelley said. “I’m still working on it.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: HEARING Amendment proposal

A public hearing on a proposal to amend Spokane County’s billboard ordinance is scheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the commissioner’s hearing room in the lower level of the Public Works Building, 1026 W. Broadway.

Map: Widening planned for Trent