Banning Billboards

22 July 2009 - 5:00am

The city of El Paso, Texas, considers whether to become the latest of several cities to impose new restrictions on billboards that amounts to a ban on future construction.

The ordinance would mean no new billboards and limits on high-tech digital boards.

"More than 350 Texas cities have banned new billboard construction. Most of the proposed El Paso ordinance is based on more than 60 years of national and international studies on signs and their impact on drivers."

Mike Churchman owns Lynx Exhibits, a Downtown exhibit hall, with his wife, Laurie Paternoster. Churchman estimates that 70 percent of their visitors found out about them through the billboards they use. The ordinance, Churchman said, will drive up the cost of advertising and hurt small businesses.

"If we don't have billboards, we're faced with potentially going out of business," he said."

Source: El Paso Times, July 12, 2009
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If hundreds of people in your community raised reasonable concerns about a planning program you developed, how would you respond? Perhaps you might call a community meeting, or ask community elected officials to reach out to community leaders.