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WHEREAS, there are fewer than 90 legally permitted billboards in Durham County, those billboards are protected by state and federal law, and a significant number of them are located in residentially-zoned parcels; and
WHEREAS, any further reduction in the number of billboards is highly unlikely due to decisions by the N.C. Supreme Court pre-empting local regulations prohibiting the relocation of or limiting the maintenance of existing billboards; and
WHEREAS, the majority of existing billboards are on creosote wooden pole structures that cannot be improved to aesthetically superior steel structures due to the current Durham billboard ordinance, which also forbids any relocation of existing billboards from residential parcels to non-residential parcels, and forbids upgrading any billboards to allow digital technology; and
WHEREAS, all existing, legally-protected billboards are located along I-85, US 70, US 15-501 and NC 147 (north of RTP), any future relocation of existing billboards will be solely within non-residential parcels along those four highways, and
WHEREAS, the Durham Herald-Sun Newspaper ran an editorial supporting a limited number of digital billboards on Monday, February 2, 2009; and
WHEREAS, Fairway Outdoor Advertising is opposed to any digital billboards that would contain animation, flashing lights, scrolling information or full-motion video, and will include such prohibitions in the text amendment it is working on currently; and
WHEREAS, a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study dated March 22, 2007 states, among other things, that "(a) careful examination of (national crash databases) shows that distraction caused by billboards fails to show up in any of the accident databases as an accident cause"; and
WHEREAS, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute was designated in 1996 as one of three Federal Highway Administration/Federal Transit Administration Intelligent Transportation Systems (FHWA/FTA ITS) Research Centers of Excellence, and designated the National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence in 2005; and
WHEREAS, digital billboards are designed to offer the same level of brightness as traditional billboards, and the light emitting diodes used in these digital billboards will be manufactured by CREE, a Durham-based company, thereby supporting local jobs; and
WHEREAS, Fairway Outdoor Advertising is proposing to donate digital billboard space for public service messages including Amber and Silver Alerts, FBI and Homeland Security alerts vital public safety information and community non-profit agencies, all of which would benefit the Durham community and Durham neighborhoods;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Durham Inter-Neighborhood Council does support as suggested in the Herald-Sun newspaper editorial the conversion of a limited number of billboards in Durham to digital billboards and the aesthetic upgrade and relocation of billboards to enhance the image of Durham.
Resolution failed 3/24/2009.
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