Section: Tucson Region      March 3, 2004

Billboard vote is pushed back by opposition 
Compromise accord draws ire from public

By Tony Davis 
ARIZONA DAILY STAR 

Public opposition prodded county supervisors Tuesday to delay voting for 60 days on a proposed settlement that
would bring down 38 billboards regulators say are illegal but let another 50 stay up. 

Supervisors each got at least 20 e-mails, phone calls, faxes or letters over the weekend protesting an
announcement by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry of an agreement between the county and billboard
company Clear Channel Outdoor. 

The agreement would end a two-year legal dispute. Now, Clear Channel and county officials will join
neighborhood leaders and astronomers, who are concerned about billboard lights, to try to work out an
acceptable resolution. 

Opponents said the proposed agreement would allow excessive lighting and essentially exempt Clear Channel
from the lighting code; allow too many large billboards to stay up while taking down smaller ones; and exempt
Clear Channel from complying with several provisions of the county's 1985 billboard and other sign code laws. 

"The proposed agreement with Clear Channel is a clear signal that not everyone has to obey the laws and
regulations of Pima County," Midtown resident Robert Samuels wrote in e-mails to supervisors. "All of the
illegal billboards need to be removed," he added. "All lighting regulations need to be enforced. Anything less is
an affront to the rule of law." 

County officials and a Clear Channel spokesman said they are willing to modify some of the agreement's
language, particularly to ensure that billboard lights don't face the sky. 

But Clear Channel Vice President Dave Sitton said the settlement already contains provisions both Clear
Channel and the county don't like: "That's how these agreements work." 

The settlement calls for the removal of 30 billboards the county says are illegal and another eight billboards that
were legal when built but don't meet current codes. It would require modification of 13 others. 

The pact would require downward lighting on all billboards but would allow Clear Channel to add lighting to
unlit billboards. 

The agreement would require Clear Channel to accept the county's regulatory authority but would allow the
company to move or rebuild billboards on an existing site and attach small pop-up signs and other extensions to
existing billboards. 

Kim Dylewski wrote supervisors that many billboards on the removal list aren't the ones of real concern to
neighborhoods and probably don't make money for the company. "We've been strongly voicing our opinions on
the billboard issues for quite some time, and obviously haven't been heard. I'm hoping that rather than changing
the ordinance, Pima County could begin enforcing it." 

Representatives of Kitt Peak and Whipple observatories west and south of Tucson joined a lighting
engineer, an astronomer and a spokesman for the International Dark-Sky Association in saying the
settlement violates the lighting code. 

They pointed to language in a diagram in the settlement document saying that lights can be positioned at
a "great angle" from a billboard. They protested the agreement's failure to require what are called cut-
off lighting shields to keep a light from glaring beyond the billboard. 

Kitt Peak Director Richard Green wrote supervisors that Kitt Peak is one of three observatories competing for a
new, privately proposed $150 million telescope. Light pollution is an issue with the selection committee, said
Sidney Wolff, a Kitt Peak astronomer. 

Sitton said the company will work with astronomers to resolve this issue. 

"There's no reason to have light moved into the sky. It defies logic," Sitton said. "If there is legitimate concern
about that issue, let's go ahead, take the time and fix it." 

Activist Mark Mayer said neighborhood representatives favor a settlement that would remove what he said are
the 45 most flagrantly illegal billboards. 

Sitton would not comment on whether the company will negotiate further on the number of signs to be removed. 

  Contact reporter Tony Davis at 807-7790 or verdin@azstarnet.com.