City approves permits for new LED billboards to go up on Hwy. 84
Two new LED electronic billboards will soon be going up in Cairo on U.S. 84, but the Cairo City Council was successful in preventing a third billboard from being erected on South Broad Street in the central business district.
Rose City Outdoor, LLC, first made inquiries about erecting billboards here last October and the city council has been working with City Attorney Thomas L. Lehman since then to revise the city’s sign ordinance.
Under the existing ordinance no billboards of any type were allowed but the city attorney said the ordinance would not withstand a legal challenge.
Monday night, the new sign ordinance was introduced so that it could be voted on at the next meeting. The ordinance had been previously introduced, but this week Lehman recommended two minor corrections to make the fines consistent with all other fines in the code of ordinance and to clean up a reference in the proposed new ordinance.
The council can vote on the new ordinance at its next meeting.
Even under the proposed new ordinance the signs planned to be erected would not meet the code, but after discussing the issue Monday night with Neil Bell of Rose City Outdoor an agreement was reached.
The council gave Bell the green light to erect signs at 35 Hwy. 84 East even though it is just shy of meeting the distance requirements from a single-family residence. Lehman recommended the council approve the permit since it was applied for under the old ordinance, which he says now is unconstitutional.
The council also agreed to allow the sign at 2815 Hwy. 84 East to be 40 feet in height rather than 36 feet that is stipulated in the proposed new ordinance.
In exchange for these considerations Bell agreed to withdraw his application to erect a sign at 208 South Broad Street.
“The new ordinance is geared to keep billboards on the busier highways and the way it is written the city should be about billboarded out,” Lehman said.
The council voted unanimously to approve permits for the two billboards on U.S. 84
