Insider reported in July that after being approached by Lamar about entering into a new contract for a billboard location, Johnson City, TN city officials realized the structure was on city property and asked that it be removed by Sept. 1. The Johnson City Press reports that on Thursday of […]
A city can’t use the building permit process to force a billboard down without paying just compensation. That’s the lesson of Lamar v Clinton Township. Here are the facts. Lamar Advertising owned a non-conforming billboard in Clinton Township, Michigan on land leased from Paul Turkal. The billboard lease had a […]
By Michael Wright, Billboard Attorney. Everyone knows that the Supreme Court’s decision in Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego (1981) is the leading case on sign regulation. For 38 years, courts have followed Metromedia’s four-justice plurality opinion in upholding laws that selectively ban offsite commercial signs. But the 4-2-3 […]
On April 25, 2019 GEFT Outdoor lost a procedural and due process claim against Westfield, Indiana relating to construction of a billboard which Westfield stopped in December 2018. GEFT still has a pending Reed v Gilbert lawsuit against Westfield. GEFT claimed procedural rights were violated because the city issued a […]
A federal appeals court heard oral arguments on January 30 on the constitutional (free speech) challenge to billboard law. Each side was allotted 15 minutes before a three-judge panel of the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, OH. The case (Thomas v. Schroer) eventually could be appealed to […]
GEFT has sued another Indiana city. This time it’s Anderson, Indiana. The Pharos Tribune reports that GEFT has sued Anderson, alleging first amendment violations after Anderson denied a permit for a digital billboard along Interstate 69 in the Flagship Enterprise Center. GETF won a lawsuit against Indianapolis in 2016 and has […]
Insider reviewed a permitting dispute between Lamar and Los Angeles County yesterday. Insider wondered whether Lamar took too hard a line. Most readers supported Lamar’s stance. Here are the comments. “I was the GM for Lamar on the entire deal. It’s simplistic and short on facts to imply that after that […]
Don’t let the best become the enemy of the good. That’s the lesson of Lamar versus County of Los Angeles which was decided on 5/8/18 Here are the facts. In 1967 the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works granted Lamar’s predecessor a permit to construct a billboard in unincorporated […]
KSLA reports that Choice Dynamic Media has filed a petition against Lubbock, TX over a subjective sign code. In April, Choice applied for 5 billboards in Lubbock and was turned down because: adding a billboard may increase traffic permitting a billboard would open the floodgates to undesirable businesses like night […]
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the City of Madison’s construction of a bridge which blocked visibility of a billboard is not a property taking requiring just compensation. Here’s a summary of Adams Outdoor v City of Madison. Adams bought a two sided billboard located near the Beltline Highway […]
