Squilla won't move to override billboard veto

IT'S A WRAP.

City Councilman Mark Squilla on Thursday will not seek to override Mayor Nutter's veto of a bill that would allow for a huge digital advertising billboard on the Electric Factory, at 7th and Callowhill streets, near the Vine Expressway.

"I don't want to move something forward without having something to counter [the administration's] claims," said Squilla, who requested feedback from the U.S. Department of Transportation after a letter from PennDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, clarifying violations if the billboard were to be erected, made him reconsider the bill. A portion of the ad revenues generated from the billboard would have gone to programs at three local schools.

Nutter vetoed the bill last week. He said that because the billboard's ad would be within 600 feet of a highway, thus violating federal and state laws, it would result in a 10 percent loss of federal funding to the city. Community groups also opposed the bill.

Squilla's predecessor, Frank DiCicco, tried in 2011 to erect an ad on the same building, which had been the subject of a 1999 court battle between building owner Myron Berman and the city when he illegally put up a wall-wrap ad.