Sandy Springs Council kills LED billboard proposal
“… The city’s immediate billboard problem involves signs on the triangle of land at the intersection of Mount Vernon Highway and Johnson Ferry and Roswell roads. The city recently purchased the land, partly for a park to serve the new City Springs civic center across Roswell, and partly for a redesigned intersection. City Attorney Dan Lee has indicated that taking the billboards by eminent domain could cost as much as $800,000 and that negotiations are foundering.
A state law allows a deal where a billboard can be relocated somewhere within 250 feet in lieu of an eminent domain reimbursement, Lee and staff attorney Joe Leonard said, but that does not apply in a city without an existing billboard relocation ordinance. Sandy Springs is one of those cities, partly because it doesn’t want the giant signs anywhere, officials said.
To resolve the triangle situation, the city attorneys proposed a new ordinance that offers two options when a billboard is targeted by eminent domain or the “threat thereof.” Like state law, it would allow for relocation within 250 feet, or elsewhere in the city at up to three alternative sites reviewed by the city’s Community Development director. It also proposes a trade-off scheme to allow the targeted billboard to be “upgraded” into an LED version in exchange for the owner removing three of its other, existing billboards anywhere in the city. (The ordinance refers to “sign faces,” so a double-sided billboard would count as two.) All such moves are optional and would require the city’s approval.”
Source: Ruch, John. Reporter News Paper 21 November 2017.