Gwinnett commissioners approve major changes to the county’s billboard ordinance that will ultimately reduce the number of billboards.
The revision includes no new static or traditional non-moving, billboards from being erected.
Companies will be allowed to put up a new digital billboard for every three static boards that are removed. The new billboards must be placed in the same space as one of the three removed.
Denise Meng, owner of Billboard Connection which helps find and lease billboard space, worries it will lessen the options for some advertisers.
“If we start reducing the options that people have in any given area, I feel like you’re reducing people’s options to make a decision in their best interest,” she says.
Meng tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish the digital billboards, which usually display six 10-second ads, are great for well-known businesses. But many small to medium-size companies prefer not to share their advertising space.
“A lot of my clients really like having their own billboard that is on 24/7; it acts like a salesperson to them.”
She says static billboards make more economic sense for those clients and can usually found in more locations.
The county says the changes are aimed at “preventing distractions, visual clutter, and other harmful effects of improperly or poorly regulated signs.”
It further regulates the brightness of the electronic signs; requires they be no closer than 500 feet from a residence; and spaced at least 5,000 feet from other billboards on the same road.
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