After more than six years of legal battles, north Fulton’s guarded roadsides are opening up to billboards.
Four cities are under court order to accommodate requests the sign companies made 10 years ago, long before most of them were formed and adopted sign ordinances of their own.
Nowhere is the order more dreaded than in Milton, where horse farms and rural landscape provide the fabric of civic pride.
Edwin Magyer, who operates Beverage Depot on Ga. 9 in Milton, said he was approached by the sign companies to have a billboard placed on his property, but he declined.
“It would’ve been easy money but bad for business,” he said.
Across the street on a hillside, several golfers line up shots amid feathery trees and green mounds at the Alpharetta Athletic Club.
“Imagine standing on the 10th hole over there and having to look at a billboard,” Magyer said.
The cities are sending a message, too. They’re not afraid to negotiate location.
As part of a negotiated deal, Milton agreed to open certain areas of the city for sign placements in exchange for a reduction in the number of signs. City leaders reduced the total number from 10 to four.
So far, the companies have applied for sites on Arnold Mill Road and on Ga. 9.
Other cities are following suit.
Sandy Springs City Attorney Wendell Willard said his city’s negotiations with the sign companies resulted in the best deal for both sides.
“They had various proposed rights of applications pending on Roswell Road, and the City Council was concerned about having more billboards [there],” he said. “What we worked out with them was decentralized sites that are heavy arteries.”
The city had 17 applications pending and got the number reduced to 10, agreeing in the process to cede some high-traffic areas. In the past month, the city has permitted four sites, primarily along I-285.
“It’s been a slow process, but I think everyone’s been working in good faith,” said lawyer David Flint, who represented two sign companies in the litigation.
Johns Creek had 31 applications pending for sign placements. So far, no deal has been struck, City Manager John Kachmar said.
“It’s probably moving toward a conclusion sometime in the next 30 days,” Kachmar said.
Though not a new city, Alpharetta annexed large swaths of unincorporated Fulton County in 2006 and thus became subject to sign permits pending on the property. Though sites have not been determined, the city has negotiated the applications down to two, Assistant City Administration James Drinkard said.
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