Billboard Blight about to hit Dayton

This was posted as a message or comment, but deserves its own post to highlight the issue, which is actually a serious issue if you'r concerned about the appearance of the city.

This is a post on the upcoming billboard blight that is about to hit Dayton:

Speaking of local politics and McLin and Whaley, I have bad news.
I just learned after being on vacation about the gutting of our city's billboard laws by the commission on February 6th.

Unless this change is overturned, this city is going to be the eyesore of the nation a year from now.

These monstrosities are going to go up as close as 500 feet apart in all these areas they were formerly outlawed: light industrial (I1), business park (BP) and eclectic commercial. Dan Kennedy from the east side just told me there are already 10 new erection permits in less than a month. This was pushed through by the billboard industry and rubber-stamped in spite of the protests by him and a few other opponents.

To underscore how serious this is, here are just a handful of examples of where we should expect to see ugly billboards go up soon:

1. several across from Carillon Park on Patterson (BP zoning where they were formerly not permitted).

2. facing Island Park on Helena Street (I1 zoning where they were formerly not permitted)

3. miles of the them 500 feet apart along the new Trotwood Connector (BP zoning again)

These are just the examples I already noticed after looking at less than a fifth of the zoning map!

Legal sizes are way up, legal spacings are way down, there is NO limitation about proximity to parks or greenways, and there's now only a 200 foot buffer instead of the old 1000 foot buffer betweeen residential and billboards.

If you love Dayton you must spread the word about this so that widespread outrage can stop it now while there is still some time.

-Mike Monett
Grafton Hill, Dayton
937-430-3259
mikemonett@att.blackberry.net

Unfortunatley its not something I have voice in as I don't live in Dayton, but perhaps there are readers who live in the city who could network/organize to put political pressure on the commmision to reverse itself.

Who is Mike Monett?

Mike Monett hosted the pioneer urban affairs website here in Dayton: New Ideas Now: Dayton and the Edge Cities. This site, now offline, was active in the late 1990s (?).

New Ideas Now was an advocacy site dealing with the proliferation of urban sprawl and how it was killing the old city. The site also dealt specifically with infrastructure issues as sprawl-enablers, with quite a bit about the decision-making around the Austin Road interchange, if I remember it right.

It was via Mikes site that I became aware of the interchange.

So its good to see him still active & interested in urban affairs issues.