Visual blight
City leaders have said many times how excited they are that so many people are coming to the new city center for the activities that occur there. We agree - Millcreek Common has been a big success so far. Adding two more digital billboards (to help promote city events, they say) just isn't necessary. One digital billboard has been more than sufficient to successfully publicize city events.
Everyone, including the mayor's staff and the city council, agrees that billboards in general are a visual blight. So why would we add digital billboards that are even more visually intrusive? Why would they want to install three digital billboards all within a single city block? It just doesn't make sense, it's overkill, and it's plain ugly. In Millcreek, we are proud of being the gateway to Millcreek Canyon. In fact we are so proud of our beautiful location close to the Wasatch Mountains that we made it part of our city motto: "Connected by nature." Why then would we install more digital billboards that can block that amazing view?
Some people think the proposed digital billboards will be a temporary blight and will be removed at the end of the 40-year lease term with Regan Outdoor Advertising. This is not true. The mayor and his staff have made no promises to remove the digital billboards and their framework after the lease ends. 40 years is a long, long time and we have to assume the digital billboards will continue to stand even after Reagan Outdoor Advertising stops using them. That's not a good deal for Millcreek.
Help us fight against digital billboard blight.
Promote Beauty & Safety, Not Future Litigation
For years outdoor advertising companies like Reagan Outdoor Adverting have relentlessly worked behind the scenes in cities like Millcreek and in the courts to fight against, weaken and otherwise get around the growing number of billboard bans and city codes that prohibit the conversion of existing outmoded traditional static billboards into far more lucrative and ever-rotating flashy digital billboards. One of the outdoor advertising industry's more ingenious tactics has been to convince cities to make exceptions to existing billboard restrictions and/or tweak ordinances in ways that at first blush appear to be innovatively win-win or otherwise harmless. However, these exceptions and tweaks ultimately make it easier for an outdoor advertising company to pressure a city to place the interests and profits of the outdoor advertising company over the safety and interests of its residents. This is because legal novelties and legal uncertainties create confusion and gray areas and the perfect opportunity for outdoor advertising companies to challenge city ordinances in courts on constitutional or other grounds or to just simply threaten to challenge city code in court to gain leverage to convince the city to take deals that are bad for the city and its residents in order to avoid exposing its taxpayers to the risk of footing the bill for a costly, long-drawn out legal battle.
