Will Oklahoma City Allow Billboards Downtown?
A read of the city planning report going to Board of Adjustment indicates they’re quite OK with the idea. Some background first: the Brewer family and Tyler Outdoor Signs are seeking permission to erect two electronic display billboards at the Reno Avenue and Sheridan Avenue entrances to Bricktown.
They look like this:
Now, here’s the curious take by city staff. The ordinance governing the Board of Adjustment’s consideration of this request dictates the applicant must cite a “hardship” caused by denial of the application. City staff seem to think that because a similar sign was approved for a nearby sign (they don’t say what it is, but the only approval I’m aware of is one for the Oklahoma City Arena), that the Brewers and Tylers would somehow suffer by not being able to do so as well. They also cite the appropriateness of such billboards as being compatible with the nearby entertainment district.
It wasn’t that long ago that a billboard overlooked the Bricktown Canal, with families traveling by water taxi looking up and seeing advertisements for a local strip club. I’m not suggesting the Tylers, longtime community leaders and urban advocates, would take a similar action. But who is to say future applicants will be limited to the Tylers?
Discuss…
THURSDAY UPDATE: Signs approved by Downtown Design Review Committee and the Board of Adjustment. David Box, attorney, promised the Board of Adjustment time will be donated to Allied Arts, and that the signs will be used to promote events downtown and throughout the city.
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Comments
Nope very bad idea. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING the Brewer Family is in favor of is a bad idea and should be trashed.
Billboards and oversized signage is inevitable in large cities, especially when they begin to exhibit the lifestyle OKC aspires to. It doesn’t all have to be bad – sometimes they can even become iconic, like the Citgo sign out past the outfield of Fenway Park in Boston or Times Square in New York. I’m not trying to say OKC will become like those places any time in the near future, but even cities like Kansas City, Dallas, Austin, and Denver have their pockets of billboards in urban environments (they’re not all highway signs).
As to the electronic display boards, just make sure they put timed dimmers on them so they don’t blind people after the sun goes down.
If they allow billboards they should only allow the digital display kind. If questionable material is displayed then people can complain to the billboard owner (who should be require to have the name viable on the display somewhere). If the billboard cycles between two or three ads pressure can be brought to bear on the other advertiser.
Billboard and oversized signage is evil. Okay, maybe evil is overdoing it, but they are ugly no matter what you do. Please don’t let this happen.