Asheville Digital Billboards- Controversy

I was driving home north up narrow, tight-laned Merrimon Avenue here in Asheville in the rain yesterday. Drivers around here know

Merrimon is a tricky road with lots of two-lane traffic

Suddenly… Something….moving… bright… and up in the sky and to my left distracted me.

Was it Santa's sleigh? A shining ornament on one of the retail shops that line this narrow road at this time of year?

NO...It was a HUGE digital billboard... with movement every few seconds...and was right in my line of vision!

I'm no spring chick. I'm not an easily distracted new driver. And yet,

I was distracted for a moment !

And that was enough time for any north-bound driver to wander into the oncoming lane and potentially hurt self and others.

How did this potentially hazardous sign get erected...especially when Asheville residents & businesses depend on our city's unique aesthetic? Here's what the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhood's (CAN's ) Steve Rasmussen wrote:

"Asheville's Planning and Zoning Commission will discuss proposed changes to the city's digital-billboard standards in the wake of the controversies over the Merrimon Ave. billboard and another new

one on Tunnel Rd. According to the staff document available at

http://www.ashevillenc.gov/Departments/CityClerk/BoardsCommissions/PlanningZoningCommission.aspx

the city planning staff has studied the issue and determined the general characteristics of corridors such as Merrimon Ave. that make them least compatible with digital billboards -- narrow right-of-way, narrow view corridor, no or very little shoulder, etc.

Here is what staff will be recommending to the commission. As you can see, they are being cautious and recommending the least restrictive of three options.

"Staff is recommending that a limited adjustment to the setbacks and separation requirements for narrower corridors be adopted -- this would have the greatest effect on Merrimon Ave. and portions of

Sweeten Creek Road.

An alternative option could be to combine this adjustment with a prohibition of digital billboards on certain

corridor segments that meet these congested characteristics. That change would have the greatest effect on Merrimon and the narrower segments of Tunnel Road.

A third alternative could be to elect to remove the digital billboard standards in their entirety [which is

legally possible because they were adopted without amendment to the 2004 agreement regulating billboards that was struck between the City and the Lamar and Fairway billboard corporations]. The impact of that change would be that no new digital billboards could be added anywhere in the city and those that existed would become non-conforming."

It's possible that enough public input tomorrow could sway the commission to choose one of the more restrictive options instead. I think most of the Asheville public would prefer the third alternative,

which would prevent new digital billboards from being erected and make

the existing ones non-conforming.

It's a sure bet, however, that the national outdoor-advertising corporations that erected these digital billboards (and that have been lobbying the state legislature to let them erect many more) will turn out plenty of lawyers, PowerPoints, … to argue that digital billboards couldn't possibly distract drivers, look beautiful in some

people's eyes, and, goshdarnit, just should not be regulated whatsoever.

This is a P&Z board with lots of new members, so it will be interesting to see whether they choose to stand with big

corporations, with local residents & businesses that depend on our city's unique aesthetic, or somewhere in the mushy middle! "

The P&Z meeting begins at 5 pm Wed. Dec. 7 [TODAY ] on the first floor of City Hall.

Will I see you there?