Regardless of overwhelming public outcry, two new digital billboards will quickly go up alongside Freeway 101 in San Jose, marking the primary time town has allowed such indicators to be constructed in additional than 36 years.
In a 9-2 vote, the San Jose Metropolis Council approved Clear Channel Out of doors to construct two massive digital billboards alongside Freeway 101 simply north of the Freeway 87 interchange on Mineta San Jose Worldwide Airport property. Councilmembers Matt Mahan and Raul Peralez, who're each operating for mayor, dissented.
The transfer comes almost 4 years after the council first moved to dismantle the citywide ban, which has been in place since 1985. It additionally follows a conflicting suggestion made by town’s airport fee final month to drop the mission and re-evaluate the 2018 coverage that led to it.
Though council members acknowledged the appreciable opposition to billboards normally, they reasoned that the indicators provided town its first likelihood in a long time to cut back the variety of blighted billboards throughout San Jose.
Beneath the anticipated deal, Clear Channel will take down 12 dilapidated, paper billboards within the metropolis’s lower-income neighborhoods in alternate for the 2 new digital indicators alongside the freeway, leaving fewer billboards in San Jose after these indicators are put in.
“We heard from a variety of members of the general public who're upset about this and they need to be as a result of nobody needs billboards,” Mayor Sam Liccardo mentioned in the course of the assembly. “… However it’s a larger profit to our public to see extra billboards down than up — easy math.”
The vote was a serious blow to residents who've fiercely rallied in opposition to any new digital indicators, citing considerations about visible blight, distractions for drivers and hostile results on the surroundings and wildlife. The 2 indicators are anticipated to generate the identical quantity of vitality per 30 days as roughly 20 properties, based on the environmental affect report.
“The truth is there are most likely greater than 500 indicators within the metropolis of San Jose, and most of them will nonetheless be standing (after this,)” mentioned San Jose resident Les Levitt, who helped launch a grassroots effort No Digital Billboards in San Jose. “Any councilmember who thinks this was a one-day occasion or an remoted agenda merchandise associated to those billboards is more likely to be stunned that we did open the floodgates, and there will likely be others to comply with quickly.”
A metropolis survey final yr reported that almost 93% of San Jose residents opposed permitting new digital billboards to be constructed alongside town’s freeways.
However that survey was carried out greater than two years after town had already begun the method to just do that.
After years of lobbying efforts from the billboard business, the Metropolis Council in 2018 voted to permit as much as 22 new digital indicators and billboards to be constructed on 17 city-owned websites. That plan included allowing the development of latest indicators on a handful of city-owned downtown buildings such because the Hammer Theatre and the Heart for Performing Arts and including new digital billboards on as much as eight freeway-facing public properties, together with on the airport.
Metropolis leaders deserted a separate proposal final yr to permit non-public property homeowners to construct as much as 75 billboards on freeway-facing websites alongside Freeway 87, Interstate 280 and Interstate 880 after going through intense public scrutiny.
Along with the 2 indicators authorised on the airport, one other digital media firm, Outfront Media, has submitted plans to town to assemble a billboard alongside Interstate 880 close to the top of a runway on the San Jose airport.
Though that signal has but to undergo the complete approval course of, it’s already elevating eyebrows.
“It’s undoubtedly proper within the method path, however I used to be advised that it was not one thing that concerned the airport,” mentioned Dan Connolly, chair of the San Jose Airport Fee. “I discover it ironic.”
Connolly, who's against permitting new digital indicators on the airport, mentioned he was additionally involved about “the Pandora field that’s being opened.”
“I see no approach town might win a lawsuit in opposition to a personal particular person if town is utilizing their land and earning money off digital billboards after which prohibiting non-public landowners from doing the identical factor,” he mentioned.
Throughout Tuesday’s council assembly, the council hammered out its desired contract phrases for Clear Channel’s billboards on the airport in real-time.
Beneath the anticipated contract, Clear Channel is permitted to construct two indicators, every with two LED-illuminated faces measuring 1,000 sq. toes. The indicators have to be turned off from midnight till 6 a.m. every day.
As well as, Clear Channel will take down two indicators anyplace of their selecting throughout the state of California, as required by Caltrans. Town additionally requested that the indicators run on 100% renewable vitality and that the corporate change every tree eliminated to construct an indication with 5 new timber to be planted in areas of town that at the moment lack cover protection.
The airport will obtain 10% of the billboard promoting time to advertise itself, and the indicators are anticipated to generate annual income of between $490,000 and $900,000 for the airport, based on airport director John Aiken.
“This mission mitigates the considerations of stakeholders who care about security, the surroundings, the evening sky and who need billboards eliminated,” mentioned Bob Schmitt, regional president for Clear Channel. “Not all billboards are alike. This can be a good mission.”
Town didn't solicit aggressive bids for the mission, citing a 2007 contract reached with Clear Channel for promoting alternatives on the airport. Metropolis officers vow that the contract, which expires in 2027, covers new billboards and out of doors signage. Nonetheless, Outfront Media has challenged that declare. Councilmember Peralez voted in opposition to the mission as a result of he needed to see it undergo new bidding.
Mahan, however, mentioned he was outright against town allowing any new digital indicators.
“Town had banned billboards for 30 years to honor the group’s dedication to defending our pure magnificence,” he mentioned, “and I don’t wish to see us transfer in the wrong way.”