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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe City-County Council on Monday sent a proposed ordinance covering area billboard rules back to committee to allow more time for consideration.
The council voted 21-1 to send Proposition 349 back to the Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee for possible revisions. The committee had approved the proposal in mid-November and sent it to the full council for consideration.
The Hogsett administration drafted the proposal as a compromise with state lawmakers and the billboard industry. It states that companies are allowed to relocate billboards that are within the Interstate 465 loop from one placement to another on the same parcel of land after obtaining an improvement location permit. Outside the I-465 loop, signs can be relocated to different parcels with an improvement location permit. In both cases, the billboards cannot be enlarged.
State lawmakers nearly passed a similar provision into law early this year.
Democratic Councilor Maggie Lewis, chair of the Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee, made a motion Monday to revert the proposal to committee. She said councilors heard negative feedback from both constituents and the billboard industry that prompted them to take a second look.
“We feel like the most responsible thing that we can do is bring everybody back,” Lewis said. “Have the conversation.”
The next meeting of that committee is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 9, at 5:30 p.m.
Fellow Democratic Councilor Ron Gibson disagreed with the decision to halt the proposal. He defended the work Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration put into creating the proposal, which meets six of the nine demands from the billboard industry. Additionally, he said neighborhood leaders understood the need to compromise.
Shannon Norman, principal planner for code revision, told the committee in November that state lawmakers gave the Hogsett administration the task of meeting with representatives of the billboard industry to find a compromise on relocation regulations and Indy’s current standards.
The proposal before the city legislative body gives advertisers the option of relocating signs, Norman said, but upholds the long-held restriction that there cannot be new billboards inside of the Interstate 465 loop. That restriction was established in 2002 and most recently affirmed in a 2019 council vote.
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A questions that I can think of:
• Can existing and relocated billboards be changed to a different type, e.g. from single panel billboard to a three-panel billboard or electronic billboard?
• Can a billboard be moved from outside 465 to another county that can still be seen from 465? Or must the billboard be relocated only with Marion County?
There are several counties that are not Marion County abutting or near 465, especially on the outside.
The City-County Council only has jurisdiction over Marion County. This is a proposed local ordinance, not state law. Relocating a billboard to another county would require the approval of that county.