Fox4kc.com and 41KSHB report that Kansas City is considering a zoning ordinance 190514 to permit new digital billboards. The city has had a ban on digital billboards since 2007. Yesterday the planning commission held a hearing on the issue. The proposal includes the following:
- A 7:1 takedown ratio. 7 square feet of billboard space must be taken down for every square foot converted to digital.
- No company may own more than 11 digital billboard permits.
The proposal goes to a city council committee. Outfront is in favor. Lamar and the independent out of home companies are opposed.
Insider’s take: Insider guesses that Lamar and the independents are opposed because of the 7:1 takedown ratio. They probably don’t have enough bad billboards to take down. A 2:1 or 4:1 takedown ratio is more normal.
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Outfront has roughly 500 poster faces in KC and many of those are remnant inventory that goes unsold. The 7:1 ratio only favors Outfront and them alone in this market and they wrote the proposal for this regulation.
There are already more than 40 digital faces in this market and giving them this will over saturate the market greatly. Terrible regulation and the OOH community should be up in arms.