New digital billboards banned in Knox

Hmmmm. This should have been up today. Oh well, here ya go:

New digital billboards are officially banned in Knox County.

The commission on Monday approved the second reading of an ordinance that prevents companies from converting traditional – or “static” - billboards to digital form. Existing ones can stay under a grandfather clause.

Officials have yet to reach a decision on what to do about traditional billboards. Some don't want any new ones, and other board members feel they've done enough.

The commission is expected to talk more about the issue in the next month or so.

In the meantime, the county won't issue new permits for traditional billboards, since legislation to ban them is still pending.

“It seemed that the vast majority of the people who contacted the commission were not in favor of digital billboards and were in favor of the ban,” commission Chairman Tony Norman said. “There were a lot of people at the meetings, a lot of emails and there was a continuous stream of people coming up to us.”

The second reading was approved in a 7-4 vote, with commissioners Jeff Ownby, Brad Anders, R. Larry Smith and Dave Wright dissenting.

Billboard regulation gets response

Had a story today about the proposed billboard bans that the Knox County Commission will discuss later today. Essentially, Commissioner Richard Briggs, who is leading the change against the outdoor advertising industry, opted to pull two of the ordinances (ones dealing with traditional billboards and electronic messaging centers), saying folks have mostly told him that they'd like regulation rather than an all out ban.

Note that the good commissioner, doctor, warrior does not want to pull the ordinance detailing a ban on digital billboards. Naw, he hates those suckers.

Soooooo, the folks in Briggs' corner were fairly quiet over the weekend. But this morning I got their response. You can click right smack here for it.

The letter is from Margot Kline, president of the Council of West Knox County Homeowners. She says a ban will not result in lost jobs or lower tax revenues for the county, but, rather, allowing billboards or digital billboards will result in lower property values “and a lot of very unhappy taxpayers.”

Obviously she goes into further detail in the letter.

Again, the issue is supposed to be put to rest today.

Supposed to be, anyway.

Briggs to pull billboard ordinances

Commissioner Richard Briggs

The Knox County Commission tomorrow was set to talk about an all-out billboard ban, but now it looks like the discussion could turn into something else.

Commissioner Richard Briggs, who was leading the charge, posted the following on the commission's forum on the county website:

Fellow Commissioners:

As you know, the vote to ban conventional billboards, digital billboards, and electronic message center is on the agenda for Monday. We have listened to arguments for, arguments against, and received numerous emails from citizens throughout Knox County. Most of us agree we need to do something yet some commissioners also feel strongly a compromise of some sort is more in order than an outright ban.

I have met with several of the smaller, local billboard and EMC companies that are based in Knox County. Most are small family businesses that would be adversely affected by a total ban of all billboards and EMC’s. The message I receive is “let’s regulate, not ban”. The small company owners are not opposed to sitting down with the MPC, environmental groups, homeowner associations, and local government representatives and working on regulations that everyone can live with.

Consequently, I would like to withdraw the ordinances banning conventional billboards and electronic message centers. The ordinance pertaining to the digital billboards would be left on the agenda to ban both the conversion of conventional billboards to digital billboards and a ban on any new digital billboards. The emails we have received from many citizens make it clear that a large number of voters do not want any more digital billboards in our community. Beyond the obtrusive and esthetic objections, the digital billboards are another distraction to already dangerously distracted drivers.

I hope this proposal is the compromise many of you have been looking for. We are listening to both our local small business owners who ask that we “regulate, not ban” and to innumerable citizens who feel passionately that we already have too much outdoor advertising.

Richard Briggs

By the way, I noticed that before Briggs posted (it's had nine page views so far), the last time a commissioner put anything up at the forum was in September. 

Commish sets agenda, Tuesday meeting

The Knox County Commission's monthly work session is set for Tuesday – not Monday – due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Click right smack here for the agenda.

Looks like there will be a number of items that could get a little bit of discussion, including matters on the Hillcrest property sale, billboards and the proposed education committee.

Then again, it could all get deferred for another month. Heh.

Meeting is set for 2 p.m. in the Death Star.

Be there or don't whine about what happens.

The billboard debate elsewhere

So, in theory the Knox County Commission this month will finally sign off on whatever it is they want to do about billboards. Ban them, keep them, regulate them, whatever.

Or, they can go ahead and postpone the discussions for another day. Been putting it off for more than four years, so what's another month? Heh.

Anyhoo, Joyce Feld, president of Scenic Knoxville, shot me over an email that says the Swedish government “has ordered the removal of digital billboards in that country.” Hmmm. Interesting. Course, we ain't Sweden.

Still, if you're into this kind of stuff, here's the report right smack here. (I would not be surprised if this gets cited by the billboard opponents during discussions this month.)

In her email, Feld also noted that a “well-regarded” 2006 study by Virginia Tech found that “anything that takes a driver's eyes off the road for more than two seconds greatly increases the risk of a crash.”

Well, yeah, no kidding. Hope a lot of money wasn't spent on that study. I mean, seriously. Anything that takes a driver's eyes off the road for ONE second greatly increases the risk of a crash.

Money well spent on the obvious.

Still, find that report right smack here as it, too, will probably be cited.

Overall, my guess is the commission is going to do some kind of trade off with the billboard industry in that local companies will  able to take down a billboard or five and replace it elsewhere (or even at the same location) with a digital version.

We'll see.

Billboard ban extended. Once again

Well, the county's had a billboard moratorium in place for four years now. So, what's another two months?

Yeah, the commission yesterday decided to extend the ban through Jan. 31. Now, last week, they had agreed in theory (work session stuff) to hold a workshop on Nov. 29, extend the ban just one month and then vote on whatever it is they come up with in December.

Then Commissioner, Colonel, Doctor and overall bad a$$ Richard Briggs came back from a trip and told the dais that they'd be extending the ban two months. Yup, he told them flat up: It's a holiday period, we've spent a lot of time on it, so set it aside.Again.

So, they did.

But, get this, the board had to vote twice to do it. Yeah. First they extended it until Jan. 28. Then some commissioners realized that the board meets that day. So, they had to vote again to extend it to Jan. 31. Oh, man, entertainment at the expense of others. Heh.

By the way, the vote wasn't unanimous. The measure passed (both times) 7-3. Commission Vice Chairman Rrrrrrrrrr. Larry Smith, and commissioners Jeff Ownby and Dave Wright voted against it.

(Commission Chairman Tony Norman was out. His mother-in-law passed away, so he was at her funeral. Condolences to the family.)

So, when the board does meet in another week, they will talk about the three proposals that Briggs has touted for months now. But, they're not voting on them. Click right smack here for a prior back story about this mess.

Anyhoo, Commissioner Sam McKenzie again called out his fellow board members for stalling.

“How many more times are we going to put this thing off,” he asked them. “I still think the parties up here know what they are going to do . . . . I think we all know what we want this thing to look like in order to get (the six votes needed to win). It's not fair to both parties (to hold off any longer). The opponents or the proponents.”

He added: “And who knows what will happen in January. We're starting to get eerily close to budget season.”

In other words: Are you jokers going to postpone it again in January and blame it on the budget? (My words, not his.)

In the end, Briggs agreed that he was “tired of beating a dead horse,” but “I'm not sure what horse I'm beating,” suggesting that a compromise next week could change everything. “This is very important to our community and something that can affects us for the next 20 to 25 years.”