Today out of home site development expert Andy Goodman gives a caution to newbies and talks about when and how to approach city planning departments.

A caution to newbies

I have meetings with a newbie or landowners.  We meet for 2 hours.  My comment at the end of our conversation is, “if the billboard business was so easy, everybody would be doing it and everybody would own their own billboard.  I don’t sit down with my banker and say after two hours I could be a lender.”  Landowners and newbies think they can talk to a real estate guy for an hour or two and know what to do.  Then they find out about the entitlement process which is overwhelming to them.  Then they find out about being a contractor and trying to do the operations side and ordering steel.  It’s not an easy business.  You and I have been doing this for a long time.  It’s taken us 30+ year to figure this out…

When and how to approach city planning departments.

If I’m talking to a number of property owners I ask them not to call the City to ask questions about billboards.  I’ll tell them, I’m an expert in this area.  I’m in the process of leasing some sites.  When I’m ready I will start to work the City.  A lot of property owners will pick up the phone anyway and call the planning department and start to question them about billboards. They have now ruined the opportunity and the next thing you know City Hall is saying no billboards even before you have approached them.

When I’m ready I will find the Sign code online so I don’t have to talk to anybody in the planning department.  When its time to introduce a billboard to the City I try to find a Council member or the City Manager to sponsor my project. They then call the planning department and says “hey I think this is a really good idea.”

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