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MUNICIPALITIES WORKING ON REGULATIONS FOR DIGITAL BILLBOARDS
WPR News - Municipalities working on regulations for digital billboards
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Wednesday April 25, 2012
by Maureen McCollum
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(LA CROSSE COUNTY) In light of La Crosse County's recently passed digital billboard restrictions, some municipalities are working out their own regulations to handle the controversial signs.
La Crosse County supervisors voted in February to put a number of limits on digital boards in towns. If a town develops its own regulations, it overrides the county's rules.
Holland and Campbell have ordinances, and now Hamilton and Shelby officials will be discussing the issue.
Mary Niemeyer is the vice president-general manager for Olympus Media in Wisconsin. Even if towns are more accepting of digital billboards, Niemeyer says the electronic signs are not going to completely replace traditional static billboards, "Financially it's impossible to do that. It would take years to pay for those boards once you convert them. If you convert too many, they kind of lose their novelty for the advertiser."
Niemeyer says there's a place for digital billboards in high traffic and commercial areas.
But Charley Weeth says the signs don't fit with the Coulee Region's natural scenery. He's the executive director of Citizens for a Scenic Wisconsin. Weeth says if each municipality develops its own billboard rules, the region could lose its cohesiveness, "How one community looks impacts their neighbors and it's part of the whole. What we're marketing here is not just for tourism but from economic development is the quality of life, which includes the scenic character of each community."
Although La Crosse County's ordinance does not affect cities and villages, La Crosse, Onalaska, and West Salem officials are currently crafting their own digital billboard regulations.
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