Events Miami Florida

St. Pete may allow digital billboards

The city of St. Petersburg is poised to join Tampa, Miami, Orlando and other Florida cities by allowing digital billboards that electronically change advertisements as motorists pass by.

On Thursday, the city council is scheduled to discuss zoning changes that would allow digital billboards. Mayor Bill Foster's staff is recommending the council go forward with the idea.

Foster is recommending approval despite objections from the city's Council of Neighborhood Associations, which believes digital billboards would change the city's character.

The Federal Highway Administration is studying the effects digital billboards have on drivers' ability to see and pay attention to what they are doing. This is also part of the neighborhood association's criticism.

Interestingly, the overall effect of the administration's plan would drastically reduce the number of billboards citywide because two companies have agreed to take down many traditional billboards in order to erect fewer digital ones.

If the council agrees to the zoning changes, Clear Channel Outdoor, the city's largest billboard advertiser, would take down 80 of its 128 signs peppered throughout the city. In exchange, Clear Channel Outdoor would be able to put up eight digital billboards.

And those eight digital billboards have to replace already-existing traditional ones that are among the 48 left, said Erica Smith, Assistant City Attorney.

The other, smaller company, CBS Outdoor, has a similar arrangement. By taking down 14 traditional billboards, it gets to erect one digital one, according to the proposed zoning change.

The city would be able to use the digital billboards for public service announcements, such as Amber Alerts and hurricane evacuation notices, and to promote events sponsored or co-sponsored by the city.

All the proposed digital billboards will be near the three interstate highways that go through the city – Interstate 275, Interstate 375 and Interstate 175.

"We're trying to take them out of the residential and commercial areas and put them on the interstate," Smith said.

The digital billboards can't be bigger than about 14 feet in height and 48 feet in width. And they have to be at least 2,500 feet from one another on the interstate so a motorist can't see two at the same time.

In addition, each electronically generated advertisement or message has to last 10 seconds, and then be immediately followed by another one. Also, one message cannot act as a prelude to the one after it, which would distract the driver as he looks to find out what the next message is.

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