Business Den reported yesterday that Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace in an August 6th opinion stated that State transportation officials have given preferential treatment to Colorado’s largest billboard owners, allowing them to skirt regulations that have been stringently enforced on Street Media Group.

Judge Wallace’s determination, which the Colorado Department of Transportation declined to comment on, comes in the case of StreetMediaGroup, a Loveland company. SMG has sued CDOT several times in recent years after the agency has denied its permits.

In the case before Wallace, SMG was denied permits for two billboards at 7300 Broadway, where I- 25 meets U.S. 36 north of Denver, because they were distractingly close to on-ramps. The company appealed that decision to an administrative law judge, who sided with SMG, but CDOT continued denying the company’s permit applications. So, SMG sued.

The judge determined that CDOT “continuously renews” at least six permits held by SMG’s larger competitors for billboards that violate CDOT’s own rules around proximity to on-ramps. “These facts all indicate CDOT treated (SMG) differently from others,” she wrote.

The exact ramifications of her decision are unclear. Wallace ordered CDOT to issue its own order consistent with her order, but didn’t specify what that order should look like.

Insiders Take: This is not over yet as the Judge did not make a ruling, just pointed out an inconsistency and referred the determination back to CDOT.  We will update as we get further details.

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