The Salisbury Planning Board recommended Tuesday that billboards be allowed to remain on Interstate 85 but eliminated through time — and possibly compensation — elsewhere in the city.
The board overwhelmingly supported four actions on billboards:
- To remove Sign Overlay District C, which permits billboards on certain sections of U.S. 29 South and Jake Alexander Boulevard.
- To retain Sign Overlay District B, the district that allows billboards on both sides of I-85.
- To extend Sign Overlay District B to a total width of 800 feet — 400 feet from the center of the interstate. The present district is a total width of 600 feet, but planners say the I-85 widening through Salisbury will put several existing billboards in the new state right of way.
- To enact a 512-year amortization schedule, meaning non-conforming billboards would have to come down within that time.
The recommendations will be forwarded to Salisbury City Council.
Chairman Mark Lewis, in his last meeting Tuesday on the Planning Board, supported the recommendations and said planners always should strive to pursue policies that they think are best for the city.
“Let council make the political decision,” Lewis said.
The Planning Board and staff honored veteran members Lewis, Mark Perry, Jeff Sowers and Andy Storey for their service to the board. Each saw their second terms on the board expire this month.
“It’s just not going to be the same,” Senior Planner Harold Poole said, as the board handed out framed certificates of appreciation to the men.
Dee Dee Wright will serve as the new chairman and Dr. Fred Dula as vice chairman. Lewis announced afterwards that he plans to run for Salisbury City Council this fall.
Sowers said he hopes the Planning Board will stick to its principles and allow the politics of issues that come before it to play out at a higher level, such as City Council.
Perry said in his two three-year terms he was impressed with the respect Planning Board members paid to each other, even when they disagreed strongly.
“If there’s a problem, we confront it, face to face,” Perry said.
Storey, Perry and Sowers each served six years. Lewis was on the board for seven years, the last two as chairman.
Lewis praised his colleagues for being “very, very active” and said he knew council members were appreciative of their hard work.
In his swan song, Perry made an impassioned case against billboards, even those on I-85. He said the billboards often advertise national products, regional radio stations or far-off shopping centers — not local businesses.
When billboard companies come under attack, Perry said, they often come out with obligatory public service billboards to show that they are community-minded.
Perry also warned of the destruction of trees to make billboards more visible. He said billboards by themselves do not make a business successful. What makes a business successful, Perry said, is quality products, service and follow-up.
Perry implored his fellow Planning Board members to make the siting of billboards as difficult as possible, while looking especially to protect the entrances to the city.
“We’re speaking for our community,” Perry said. He urged the board to send the question of billboards to the Community Appearance Commission for its input.
Instead, the board voted 9-2 to retain billboards on I-85. Perry and John Daniels dissented.
“I still believe signs along I-85 have a place,” Elaine Stiller said, noting that the city exercises a certain amount of control with many of the restrictions it has in place.
I-85 billboards can only be placed on industrially zoned land. They must be spaced at least 1,000 feet apart, and they cannot be within 200 feet or less of a residential zone. They have a maximum size of 400 square feet and must provide some landscaping.
As part of its recommendation, the Planning Board said I-85 billboards should not be placed within 1,500 feet of an interchange.
Lewis said a compelling argument could be made for the importance of billboards as a directional service to bring motorists off the interstate to local businesses. State logo signs also are limited to gas, food and lodging establishments and have distance requirements within an interchange. As such, they often neglect other local businesses, Lewis noted.
The outgoing chairman also reminded the board that billboards forced to come down along federal-aid highways, such as Jake Alexander, require compensation. Others will not, leaving some property owners without an important source of income.
“It is literally a taking,” Lewis said, though he supports the amortization period. Poole said the 512-year period has been court-tested.
Poole noted that New Bern used federal transportation money to pay billboard companies for signs taken down along federal-aid roads. Salisbury’s policy has been to ignore non-conforming billboards that would require compensation.
“That (the compensation question) should not be a consideration for this board,” Poole said.
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