Report: City flouts highway billboard regs

PHILLY HAS FAILED to follow federal, state and city laws for billboards, a report released Wednesday says.

The report by Scenic Philadelphia states that many illegal billboards along federally funded highways in the city, listed in a 2006 Department of Transportation inventory, are still there. The report also cites additional violations.

It warns that the state risks losing 10 percent of its federal highway funding as a result.

Authored by University of Pennsylvania master's-degree candidate Sarah Richards, who obtained a grant for the study, the report focuses on 183 billboard structures, sporting 331 sign faces, along I-95, the Vine Expressway and the Schuylkill Expressway. The report says that only 18 percent of the billboards in the study complied with all regulations and had valid permits.

Among violations outlined in her report, Richards found that 36 percent of signs were within 500 feet of one another - a violation of the Highway Beautification Act and city code. A handful of billboards also had sign faces exceeding 1,200 square feet, a maximum size also set by local and federal law.

"These things are not hiding under the cracks," Mary Tracy, executive director of Scenic Philadelphia (formerly SCRUB), told the Daily News.

The report cites a 2006 settlement between the city and outdoor-advertising companies that certified some billboards that were not compliant. That settlement, which lowered the annual $650 permit fee to $50, expires next year, the report says.

Mayor Nutter's press secretary, Mark McDonald, said in an email that he could not comment on the report because he had not seen it.

The state, which is governed by signage regulations in the federal Highway Beautification Act, has an agreement with the city allowing Philly to oversee its own outdoor-signage regulations.

The report recommends that the Federal Highway Administration conduct an audit of city permits and licenses for signage along the federal highways to determine whether the agreement should be revoked.

Tracy said she hopes the state will resume overseeing billboards in the city.