Council wants to replace billboards with fewer, digital models

Philadelphia City Council on Thursday passed sweeping billboard-regulation changes - the first major ones since the 1970s - that could mean fewer billboards but more digital displays.

Sixth District Councilman Bobby Henon sponsored the bill, which allows companies in certain areas to remove two regular billboards for each billboard they want to convert to digital form. The measure passed by 15-0.

The bill sets brightness limits, height restrictions and requires companies to pay a higher licensing fee that could bring in an extra $350,000 annually to the city.

In turn, billboard owners can construct and modify their signs without going through the city first and increase the height of their signs in certain cases if they become obstructed.

The bill is the product of more than two years of talks with the industry and antibillboard groups.

"At a certain point, you need to move forward with creating a citywide policy. Not everybody is going to be happy, not every neighborhood is the same," Henon said. "The billboards will have a regulation. Right now, there are no standards on the brightness of any type of billboard."

The law also sets standards for the amount of time between messages flashed over the digital billboards, and does not permit construction within 500 feet of residential properties, or billboards facing residential areas, within 1,000 feet.

The hope is that the bill unclutters the region by prompting billboard owners to take down languishing billboards and replace them with digital signs at the 2-1 exchange rate.

Mary Tracy, executive director of Scenic Philadelphia, an antibillboard group, called the bill a good compromise during hearings last year.

Mayor Nutter's office declined to say whether he would sign the bill.

Earlier this month, Council approved a bill for large-scale digital installations, dubbed "urban experiential displays." The legislation limits those signs to Center City, and includes its own regulations on size and animation.

In other Council news:

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced a measure to offer a $1 tax credit to businesses for every $5 donated to the School District. Brown said the tax credits the city gives out to all businesses would be capped at $5 million per year, or a total of $25 million for the district. "We are looking for any and everything we can do to fill that gap and do it in a way that's responsible and in a way that does not tax homeowners," she said.

Council passed a bill that would make it easier for the Parking Authority to tow delinquent vehicles. The bill, sponsored by David Oh, permits the PPA to tow vehicles with unreachable owners who have received at least one parking ticket warning they are boot-eligible. This includes ticketed-vehicle owners who do not have properly registered plates with the Department of Transportation (about 100,000, the PPA estimates).