TAKE ACTION!
Read below to see what specific requests you can make to city council to make the most impact
Share your thoughts via group email with the city council and call your city council member
Share this Building Salt Lake and SL Tribune news article on social media and with your neighbors
Share this website on social media and with your friends and neighbors
Review and then share peer-reviewed studies and other public safety related information with others
Share a comment to be posted on our Community Comment page
Get involved with groups like Scenic Utah that fight against billboard blight at both the State and local level
CHECK BACK OFTEN FOR UPDATES!
Contact Your City Council Member
Talk to your friends and neighbors about the city's recent adoption of a substitute sign code that paves the way for Reagan Outdoor Advertising to operate one additional digital billboard at Millcreek Common (for a grand total of TWO). Encourage them to join in on grassroots efforts to oppose any deal between Reagan and Millcreek that does not benefit Millcreek in substantial ways, properly limit its legal and financial exposure or promote public safety.
Call or send an email to the mayor and every council member to remind them that there is no need for them to rush to sign off on any deal with any company and that they have a responsibility to current and future Millcreek residents and taxpayers to take the time and steps necessary to ensure that Millcreek's interests are at the forefront and properly protected.
Especially because Mayor Silvestrini has continued to be a VP and Director and an attorney of record at Cohne Kinghorn, PC (a law firm that has an established attorney/client relationship with Reagan Outdoor Advertising and is currently representing the advertising giant against Salt Lake City on a billboard case) during his time as mayor and seems unwilling/unable to publicly acknowledge this and how the duty he ethically owes to Reagan as a result is at odds with Millcreek's best interests:
Encourage city council representatives to insist Millcreek city staff slow down and seek out and consider creative, tasteful alternative options for promoting Millcreek Common and city-sponsored activities and for any needed new Millcreek Common signage that don't involve building a new digital billboard that is guaranteed to contribute to traffic/pedestrian/cyclist accidents over time and to still be around much longer than most people's mortgages.
Ask them to wait until Mayor Silvestrini has left office and is no longer in a position of influence/power over the terms and continuation of employment of the City Manager, Assistant City Manager and City Attorney or anyone else who may be engaging in negotiations or reviewing and advising city council and the public on proposals involving Reagan.
As far as strategies and options to reduce the number of existing old static billboards in Millcreek, remind them there is no reason to rush things. Instead, encourage them to enlist the help of panel of volunteers to explore what other communities have done or are currently doing and come up with creative and viable options and approaches likely to best work for Millcreek and other Utah cities. The panel could be recruited from Millcreek's four Community Councils, Planning Commission, youth leaders, environmental groups and local businesses, as well as University of Utah College of Architecture and Plannings students, property owners currently holding billboard leases and, yes, perhaps even outdoor advertising companies like YESCO and Reagan.
Ask them to request and then carefully consider an independent site-specific pedestrian/traffic safety assessment on the impact of building a digital billboard on 1300 East on public safety before moving forward with a RFP process or re-engaging in negotiations with Reagan.
Ask them at minimum to take the necessary steps to ensure any RFP/negotiation/procurement process is open and transparent and carried out in a way that encourages creative proposals from companies and organizations inside and outside of the outdoor advertising industry. Click here to see the costly consequences that resulted when one city chose to broker a billboard deal with one outdoor advertising company without first seeking bids from competitors.
Ask them to seek independent (or at least transparent and written) legal analysis and advice regarding how recent legal cases may be used to strengthen Millcreek's sign code AGAINST legal challenges and more digital billboards. This includes the 2022 US Supreme Court landmark case Austin v. Reagan that upholds the right of a city to ban the digitizing of off-premises signs (i.e. billboards) without also banning the same for on-premises signs (i.e. those advertising co-located businesses) as well as a recent federal and state Utah billboard cases.
Ask them that if they insist on going forward and specifically going forward with a deal with Reagan as opposed to creative options, to make sure it is conditional on the removal of no less than six large standard sized old-school static billboards in exchange for being allowed to sell much more lucrative advertising space directly above a "Millcreek Common" marquee on city-owned property for the next 40 years. Click here, here, here, and (post-Austin) here and here(post-Austin v. Reagan) for just some examples of what deals other cities have done (and not done) with billboard companies that you could share with them.
Ask to meet with them in person and discuss your thoughts on this issue!
The one digital billboard already at Millcreek Common is more than enough!
To send one email addressed to all city council members, copy and paste the following addresses into your email program, or use the buttons below to send individual emails:
Jeff Silvestrini
Mayor
801-214-2705 (calls only)
Silvia Catten
District 1
801-214-2701 (calls only)
Thom Desirant
District 2
801-214-2702 (calls only)
Cheri Jackson
District 3
801-214-2703 (calls only)
Bev Uipi
District 4
801-214-2704 (calls only)
*If you don't know who your city council member is, refer to the district map at the bottom of this page.
Contact the planning commission
The planning commission was asked to evaluate the ordinance changes proposed by the mayor's staff that will allow two more digital billboards to be installed in the city center. The planning commission gave their recommendation to the city council: they smartly rejected the plan to install two more digital billboards in Millcreek's one-city block city center.
Attend upcoming planning commission & city council meetings
Proposals to change the sign ordinance have to follow a specific process, including presentation by the mayor's staff in a public planning commission meeting where the planning commission can ask questions, discuss the issue, and make a recommendation to the city council. The city council then holds their own public meeting to discuss the recommendation from the planning commission, ask the mayor's staff their own questions, and then vote whether to approve or reject the sign ordinance change and whether to approve or deny the proposed deal with Reagan Outdoor Advertising to build and operate the digital billboards. There is always time allotted in these public meetings for residents to make public comment, within reasonable limits.
Planning commission meetings
THANK YOU FOR ALL WHO ATTENDED THEIR MEETINGS & SUBMITTED COMMENTS! THE PLANNING COMMISSION DID THE RIGHT THING!
UPDATE: In their March 20 meeting, the planning commission voted 6-1 against the proposed sign ordinance changes, recommending no new digital billboards in the city center. This is a great result but the fight is not over. This matter moves next to the city council and they are moving VERY QUICKLY. They have put it on their work meeting agenda for March 25th. There is not an opportunity to make public comment during a work meeting about items on the work meeting agenda. Because the city council will be doing a first reading on this matter on March 25, the city council typically won't vote on it at that time, but it will come up again in the public portion of a city council meeting at a later date, possibly as soon as April 8th. If you have not yet sent an email to the city council, now is the time send an email to let them know you don't want more digital billboards added to the city center.
Click to read the staff report submitted for the March 20 meeting. This report includes suggestions that the planning commission will consider for their recommendation to the city council, including how many digital billboards could be installed, which static billboards would get swapped, and whether the city should back away from the plan entirely.
Click here to read the full Feb 28 Millcreek Staff Report (including the proposed Code Amendments) that was provided to the Planning Commission for the Feb. 28th, 2024 meeting.
City council meeting
NEXT MEETING: THIS MONDAY April 8th, 7:00pm, at city hall TBA. We will update this section and the rest of the website to reflect the April 8th City Council vote ASAP - we are a group of neighbors/community volunteers and appreciate your patience!
Yes, this issue is really already up for a vote! Please come and make a public comment and stand (or even just sit or knit!) in solidarity with others in our amazing community who oppose backroom deals and efforts by Millcreek top leaders to sell out Millcreek to an outdoor advertising giant at the expense of current and future residents.
Together we can help protect Millcreek's natural beauty and public safety and promote government transparency and accountability. You really can make a difference just by showing up!
Millcreek top leaders first released the proposed sign code repeal/substitution to our community councils at the end of January. After the planning commission recommended against the proposed Reagan/Millcreek digital billboard deal, Millcreek top leaders moved VERY QUICKLY by putting it on the very next city council work meeting agenda held March 25th - less than a week after the planning commission rejected to deal and recommended further study and research. There was not an opportunity to make public comment during the March 25th work meeting but there was a "first reading" where the issue was formally introduced to city council. It remains a mystery and source of speculation why the city is moving so quickly but here we are.
If you cannot make it . . . Go to this page to find the live stream of the April 8th 7 pm public meeting and watch online and submit comment, or send an email to members of the city council or give them a call. Council member contact information is listed in an earlier section on this page. Consider telling them which council district you live in so those council members understand clearly how their constituents feel about digital billboards.
Click here to see a list of upcoming meetings and past meetings.
Get to know your local community council
If you live in Millcreek, you are represented by one of these great FOUR community councils made up of neighbors who volunteer their time to serve the community:
Canyon Rim Citizens Association (Meets the first Wednesday of each month at Millcreek Common, 2nd floor of skate building @ 7pm)
Mt. Olympus Community Council (Meets the first Monday of each month at Churchill Jr. High Library @ 6 pm)
Millcreek Community Council (Meets the first Tuesday of each month at Millcreek Common, 2nd floor of skate building @ 6:30pm)
East Millcreek Community Council (Meets the first Thursday of each month at Millcreek Common, 2nd floor of skate building @ 6:30pm)
Join us on a Walkability assessment
Join us on a Walkability assessment where we will walk on Highland Drive and consider the impact of a digital billboard on the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists on this very busy stretch of road. Time and date, TBD. Meet at the parking lot on the west side of Highland Drive just south of Crown Burger.
In the meantime, invite your friends and neighbors to walk with you along Highland Drive during high-traffic or after sunset and complete the checklist. We hear there is a fantastic new ice cream shop nearby on Miller Avenue with insanely good chewy gooey buttercake ice cream you may just want to stop by and tryout when you are done.
Here is a link to the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration's walkability assessment form
