PUBLIC HEARING – Digital Billboards in your Neighborhood?

   Digital billboards in you neighborhood ?
Public Hearing Council Bill 120430 
 Wednesday 11/28 at 10:00 AM   Room 400

Click here to send an email to councilmembers

Ask them to amend the bill!

Dear Friends, 

How would you like to have this frequently changing, illuminated billboard in your sight day and night?  

A public hearing about the new sign control law, including the critical issue of outdoor digital advertising in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, will be held on Wednesday, November 28th in City Hall Room 400 at 10:00AM. 

We urge everyone to attend this hearing and also to call and send faxes to Councilmembers. 

Click here to send a fax to your members of City Council. 

A friend and insider who understands the political process told us to “tell everyone that they need to testify on Wednesday or possibly be forced to live for decades with the visual nuisance of glaring, blinking advertising digital billboards hawking almost anything, towering over our neighborhoods and many of our homes and businesses.”

Here’s some key amendments we are proposing to the new sign code:  

• The current sign bill allows digital advertising such as this one located at 400 North 5th Street to be erected too close to residences without any public input – we want to amend the bill to increase the buffer zone between digital signs and residences so communities can weigh in on the sign’s brightness, hours of operation and message changes per minute. Some neighborhoods may even prefer to create a digital free zone.
•  This sign billl would allow more than one billboard on a property – we want to restore the standard from the old law that a property can only have one billboard.
• The bill makes it too easy to legalize old billboards that no longer comply with the law and turn then into new digital advertising –we want to make sure that old billboards located in protected areas in our neighborhoods get taken down, not resurrected.

Here’s what we need you to do:

1. Attend the hearing and bring your friends, neighbors, and coworkers ( City Council responds to numbers of people). Call and register to testify on Wednesday on Bill 120430 – Contact Rules Chair Councilman Greenlee 215- 686-3446. Call Scenic Philadelphia and let us know you plan to attend (215-731-1796)  

2. Contact your community group, organization, or association and ask them to send a representative to testify and submit a written statement.

3. Click here to send a fax to Council members asking them to postpone a vote on Bill until it is amended to protect our environment. 

4. Call your District Council member and At-Large members.   Ask them to support our amendments to better protect our property, our neighborhoods, our gateways, and our City.  Just call 311, state your address and ask to be connected to your district member of City Council.

5. Visit Scenic Philadelphia’s website for more information about the bill. 

Together we can make a difference!

Thanks for your help,

Mary Tracy

President

Scenic Philadelphia 

Visit www.scenicphiladelphia.org  for more information. 

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Scenic Philadelphia is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit that promotes healthy, vibrant and beautiful public spaces throughout all of Philadelphia. Founded in 1990 as SCRUB, Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight, this originally grassroots organization secured the passage of strong sign laws in 1991, the removal of 1,000 illegal billboards in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods of low wealth, the preservation of Burholme Park, and the removal illegal billboards in Mt Airy, University City, Overbrook farms, Tacony, Mayfair, Old City and dozens of other neighborhood commercial corridors. www.scenicphiladelphia.org   

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