Expand the sign moratorium
Sussex County Council has proposed a moratorium on off-premises signs, better known as billboards, until an ordinance on signs can be updated.
The old ordinance allows signs just about anywhere someone wants to put one; at this point, so many people are requesting to place signs on their property that the county board of adjustment, which has to approve them, just can’t keep up.
As Commissioner George Cole recently put it, “It’s getting out of hand. It’s a mess out there.”
Back in the 1960s, Lady Bird Johnson looked around and realized it was a mess out there on just about all our nation’s highways. She launched her famous battle against the billboards and junkyards that cluttered many roadways, and Congress eventually passed the Highway Beautification Bill, limiting billboards on public rights of way.
But the law had loopholes; 50 years later, more signs than ever have appeared along our roadways, most often on private land.
Now huge billboards once reserved for large interstates or Times Square in New York are finding their way to Sussex County. Those who manufacture or sell signs will say that’s as it should be; they are merely finding new markets, and landowners often receive a steady rent check for allowing a sign.
But at some point, one person’s right to use their land as they wish interferes with a neighbor’s right not to live in the shadow of a huge sign - and the right of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to a safe and uncluttered roadway.
Billboards already line the Route 1 commercial corridor, and Route 24 is not far behind. New signs will only be larger and higher and even more distracting than all the signs already in place. On-premises signs, many featuring video and bright, electronic lighting, already pose a serious safety threat that will pose a greater threat as these signs proliferate.
The sign ordinance must be updated. But council must go beyond off-premises signs to rewrite the rules for all signs in Sussex County, with enforcement measures strong enough to deter the rising number of illegal and illegally placed signs.
