THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050470
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A divided City Council opted Tuesday to hand an electronic billboard proposal over to a committee that meets privately to plan downtown development.
In addition, the council agreed to discuss the billboard in a closed-door executive session next week, if the city attorney agrees that it would be legal.
The two decisions temporarily remove the issue from the public eye. The billboard proposal has stirred debate among council members and citizens. The council agreed to bring the matter up again publicly at its April 25 meeting.
Richard James, an entrepreneur, has proposed putting up and operating the sign on city-owned land off Waterside Drive. In return for allowing the sign on its property, the city would be permitted to use it 51 percent of the time. The rest of the time, the sign would be used for commercial advertisements.
The Planning Commission, the Design Review Board and city consultants have already discussed the billboard idea. None has endorsed the proposal.
Mayor Paul Fraim proposed that the message board also be considered by those working on updating the city's Downtown 2000 plan. The Downtown Development Committee, a committee of citizens and city staff, is leading the planning process. Councilman Mason C. Andrews, who has headed opposition on the sign proposal, is chairman of the group.
The committee's discussions are likely to be done in private, though. City Attorney Philip R. Trapani said such committees are not required to open their proceedings to the public unless three or more council members attend.
Councilman Paul Riddick has been James' most consistent supporter on the billboard plan. Riddick has said the city's lack of attention to James's proposal over many years typifies its treatment of minorities and others who are not of the city's powerful and prominent. Both Riddick and James are African American.
The larger question, though, may be whether such a sign would enhance downtown or help it prosper. Some council members say the city needs such an electronic sign to promote city events.
At a public hearing last month, a long line of civic league and garden club members denounced the proposal as being nothing more than a public subsidy of a commercial billboard that would cheapen the city's downtown.
Before such a sign can be put up, the council must make several decisions. It would have to change a law that now prohibits stand-alone signs on public property. It would have to approve the location, and it would have to either accept James' proposal or one from any competitors that might emerge.
The city could also opt, instead, to build its own sign and eliminate any commercial advertising.
At Tuesday's meeting, Councilman Randy Wright said he still supported the sign concept. But he said he would have to know exactly where it would go before agreeing to change the law that now prohibits such projects. After the meeting, Wright said he would not necessarily approve such a sign on Waterside Drive. by CNB