Omaha By Design: Omaha, Only Better

If you live in Omaha and like the brightness and motion of electronic billboards, you’re in luck – it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll be seeing more of them in the future. Omaha by Design’s involvement in the issue, however, has resulted in a more stringent set of regulations governing their use.

On Dec. 23, the Omaha City Council voted 7-0 to approve a set of regulations permitting electronic billboards in the city, one less restrictive than the Omaha Planning Board recommended at its Dec. 3 meeting.

Throughout 2009, representatives from Omaha by Design and its Advisory Committee worked with the City of Omaha Planning Department to help devise a regulations package for electronic billboards that respected the intent of Omaha’s Urban Design Element and the progress the city has made in implementing its recommendations. At the same time, planning staff was in negotiations with representatives from the billboard industry, who put forth their own regulations package.

Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design, said the organization’s efforts paid off in helping the planning staff shape the approved regulations, even though they do not contain two key amendments proposed by Omaha by Design and recommended by the Omaha Planning Board. Those amendments called for limiting the total number of electronic billboards in the city to 15 (rather than 18 to 26 or more as allowed under the adopted ordinance), beefing up the exchange ratios for replacing a static billboard face with an electronic one and capping the number of “jumbo” electronic billboards (672 feet in size) to no more than five of a billboard company’s electronic billboard inventory (the approved ordinance does not contain a cap on the number of jumbo electronic billboards).

Spellman recognized the efforts of the organization’s electronic billboard subcommittee – David Levy, Del Weber and Red Thomas – in addressing this new land issue. “I can’t thank them enough for their time, resources and support,” she said. The biggest disappointment, she noted, is that the regulations don’t give the community adequate time to evaluate the issues of aesthetics and safety associated with electronic billboards. As an example, she cited the National Transportation Safety Board’s study under way on safety concerns associated with electronic billboards. Data from that study will not be available until the latter part of 2009 or the start of 2010.

Levy, an attorney with Baird Holm, said stricter regulations at the outset would have been better, as making the adopted ordinance stricter in the future – after greater numbers of electronic billboards have already been installed – could prove impossible.

Spellman said Omaha by Design will continue to advocate for the goals and policies set forth in the city’s Urban Design Element, which was created with the help of a community input process and unanimously approved by the Omaha City Council before being adopted as part of the city’s master plan.

To access the new electronic billboard regulations, visit here and click on “Journal 12/23.”