News : County hears Billboard concerns

At last week's Supervisor meeting, area lawyer Mark Mossman addressed the board concerning regulations for billboards. He shared with the Supervisor of his travels through the south and noticed how the country was gorgeous, but that "it was striking that every now and then, you could be driving through really, really pretty countryside and all of a sudden you'd come to a county that just had billboards everywhere." This is what Mossman said made him think about the issue a few years ago.

Historically Iowa has done a good job of controlling billboards along state highways, and the federal government enforces them really well along interstate highways and that billboards have not been a big issue until the last 2 or 3 years, or that's about when he had noticed them, he explained. He's noticed several popping up in southern Benton County leading into the smaller towns. "You're faced with a series of sometimes several billboards," Mossman said.

While he understands that it serves a purpose to advertise businesses in the towns, "but in 5 years from now, all of a sudden we've got billboards one after another going into all of our towns, I don't know if that's a good thing. At least it's not something I like to look at. I think Benton County is so pretty. Billboards constitute a real eyesore."

He shared a draft of an ordinance for the Jones County Sign Ordinance from 2005, and has just begun to research the issue. He did find another ordinance from a county out of state. He said the ordinance give guidance and restrictions, location, types, size, illuminations, making sure they aren't obstructing intersections. But he said, "they go beyond that and actually prohibit any signage that's in agricultural areas, so it has to be typically a sign that advertises a business on that property, then there are limits to the type of sign that you can have."

He said that was his purpose of visit to the board, was to see if they are comfortable with unlimited restrictions, he's not.

Supervisor Rick Primmer said that this should be part of what he would call a comprehensive plan. which we don't have.

Mossman didn't think it would need to be included in that, but that a simple ordinance would address the issue. He stated that this could address billboards "within a right of way or within so many feet of a right of way which basically eliminates billboards," he said, "unless it meets an exemption. Right now I'm not horribly offended by the signs that are up there, because there aren't as many. But if you don't have some sort of regulation, and there's a company out there promoting this, you could all of a sudden have 5 times as many. Then they are grandfathered in and you can't do anything about it."

Primmer said, "I think it's something that warrants consideration. I personally would like to see it part of a bigger plan rather than several ordinances. You are correct. In 3-5 years from now, there could be quite a few of them. It's not so much the growth that bothers me, it's what if the gentleman doing this decides to no longer take care or change the signs out or etc. or if they blow down, that's the concern I have. That could be another part of this billboard ordinance, the maintenance."

Mossman volunteered to be part of a committee that would look into the issue. The board made no decisions concerning moving forward on this at this time.

Driving through the county, there are a variety of signs posted. I found the sign, "Hogs are Beautiful" amusing, there are also signs for area country churches directing traffic to their location, and occasional signs making political statements, and those making religious statements. Billboard ordinances may or may not address all of these.

I reached out to Shadoe Vogt of Shellburg who is the owner of Cedar River Billboard. Cedar River Billboards has several small billboards in the county. In a statement, he said, "I created Cedar River Billboard in 2013 with the idea to create small town affordable advertising. At that time finding a way to advertise locally on a budget was about impossible. I also owned the Pearl Street Social Club in Shellsburg and wanted to put a sign up south of town letting passer-byes know we were there. Being on a tight budget I reached out to other business owners in the area to go in together and get this built. Just after building the structure, we were getting new visitors to the bar telling us the sign is what lead them in. I also immediately heard from other business owners wanting to know where the sign came from and how to get on one. This sparked the realization that's there is this need in our area.

Since that time I have constructed 22 billboards and created advertising space for 134 local businesses. One common misconception is that since a business has been somewhere for years everyone knows about it. The fact is people come and go so business owners need to continually remind potential customers they are there. With technology always changing one thing remains the same, customers will be driving down the area highways. These roadside billboards are reminders for everyone passing through there's a small store in town or the repair shop off the beaten path.

Now Benton County has never had any rules regarding off-premise signs such as these. This being true it was easy for me to grow my business which is now my main source of income. Most towns and all our surrounding counties do have ordinances to restrict placement, size, and potential traffic hazards. This is not anything I would be against, right now anyone can put a sign up anywhere in the county as long as it's on the other side of the fence and not a state road. There are a few other structures like these in the area but the majority are mine placed with lease agreements with the landowner holding me financially responsible to maintain and uphold a sound structure.
If Benton County wanted to create a like ordinance of our neighboring counties or even the state I would not be opposed. My only reservation would be any existing structure would be grandfathered in. My business has grown supporting other local businesses helping them build into the dream they've always had. I would be more than happy to visit with our supervisors and together we can keep Benton County beautiful while helping our local small businesses grow."

Another benefit Vogt would later add is that it helps the farmers or landowners that use the annual fee for things like LP gas and property taxes. In one case, the Marvin Lindsey Field, the payments help toward the expenses of the field itself.

Vogt said he also has contributed to causes such as Autism Awareness, Pink Heals, school bus safety, motorcycle awareness, and a sign against littering (give a hoot, don't pollute). He has also had signs made for missing children and has even let some local kids design a couple of different holiday-themed ones.

Some might consider the signs an eyesore, others see it as income, benefitting small businesses, helping struggling farms and landowners, and even a ballfield.

Here is a link to just a few of the signs that I saw as I drove through part of the county the other day.

What are your thoughts?