A US District Court Judge for the Southern District of Indiana ruled yesterday in favor of GEFT Outdoor in its case versus the City of Evansville.  GEFT sued Evansville after being denied a variance request to construct a digital billboard.  Here are links to the Court’s Entry on Cross Motions for Summary Judgement and the Order Entering Permanent Injunction.    The Court determined

• that the city’s on premise/off-premise mode of sign regulation is a content based regulation of speech
• that the city’s sign standards are an impermissible restraint on free speech because they give the city unbgridled discretion in making the permit decision and because they lack sufficient prodedural safeguards.

GEFT Outdoor is not afraid to pursue its rights in court.  It won a similar case against Monroe County in November 2021, lost a case against the city of Westfield in 2019 and won two cases versus Indianapolis in 2017.

Billboard Insider’s take:  Yet another municipality has a sign code thrown out because it uses on-premise/off-premise distinctions and allows for 19 different sign categories which mean that an inspector must read a sign to decide what sort of regulations apply.  The Evansville code was also too open-ended with many terms undefined and few specifics as to when city officials had to make rulings and on what basis.

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