*** Highland Square Neighborhood Association ***

BILLBOARD MEETINC RECAP:

Thanks to Mark Smith and Christine Freitag for organizing the meeting. Special thanks to Warren Woolford of the City's Planning Department, Debbie Forfia of Legal, and John Moore of Zoning for participating in our panel discussion, and to City Council members Renee Greene, Bob Keith and John Conti who attended. Also thanks to David Minc and Councilwoman Tina Merlitti, who each prepared letters or statements about the billboards for presentation at the meeting, and to buiness owner John Stathopoulos for his statement on the billboards.

Now the news:

After introductions and the reading of the Minc and Merlitti statements, John Moore provided information about "conditional zoning". He also explained how the thirteen new billboards meet all legal requirements. Warren Woolford pleasantly surprised the meeting by announcing that the Planning Department will be recommending to City Council at the September 8th Council meeting a full moratorium on new billboards, while a new commission is put together to study signage. The prior signage studies occurred in 1992 and 2000. Debbie Forfia provided insight on the legal issues involved in limiting billboards.

It's difficult to recap all the questions asked. We were informed that in future these billboards could be modified to carry electronic messages, like those along the freeway. Also that the city cannot regulate the advertisements, so we could have giant ads for Black Velvet liquor as our welcome to the neighborhood.

We ended the meeting with what can be done. We need to focus on getting City Council to pass the moratorium, complete their study, and then (we hope) limit all future billboards.

For those in place, our best options are to boycott those who advertise on them, call those advertisers and let them know how unhappy we are with their ads, and let the property owners on whose land the billboards are located know how we feel. To have City Council move forward, we need to write our Council members and let them know how we feel about the boards. We should also attend the September 8th meeting. A sample letter and Council contact sheet were distributed at the meeting. If you would like a copy you can e-mail me at mrussell@neo.rr.com and I will send them to you. Or you can get contact information at www.ci.akron.us .

Thanks again to all who attended.
-Michael Russell

QUESTIONS:

Christine Freitag (TAGC) cdfreitag@sbcglobal.net

Bob Freitag (NATURE) cdfreitag@sbcglobal.net

Mark D. Smith (HSNA) desmanarc@neo.rr.com