Billboard Insider is running a series featuring Tom Giesken who just retired after a 35 year career in out of home (including 25 years running his own company). Last week Tom talked about static billboards and digital billboards. Today he talks about a time he had to litigate to protect his rights.

Sometimes you have to litigate

I bought some billboards in Dearborn, Michigan, which had been owned by a wildcatter who went in and got about 20 leases and sued the city and fought in court. The city agreed to give the wildcatter seven permits to build all 10 x 30’s B2B’s. I bought them shortly after he built them.

After operating them a while I had a couple leases expiring. The zoning code said you could take an existing billboard down and build it back somewhere else but it had to be the same height, same size, everything. I went to the Dearborn Heights zoning office. I said “Hey I’m going to put this billboard here on Ford Road the same as it is now.”  They said, “we’re not giving you the permit”. I said, “I’m turning in a permit to get a permit and it’s 100% legal”. They said, “we don’t want it there and we’re doing a rezoning and redistricting in that whole area in a couple years. We just don’t want it there and we’re not giving you the permit.” I said, “Well then, I’m going to have to sue you” and they said go ahead. I got an attorney and we filed suit.  The judge said, “This is stupid. Why are we even doing this. We’re going to give him the permit”. My attorney argued that we should get reparations for legal costs because of the purposeful inconvenience they caused. There was a sliver of property on M-39 aka the Southfield Freeway. There wasn’t a billboard within 2-3 miles north or south, either way which makes it very valuable and very unique. I said to the city, “OK I won’t sue for legal cost if you give me a permit to build a 14 x 48 there and put it 20 to 30 feet higher in the air and convert it to digital.” It’s one of the premier boards in Detroit Michigan and companies were fighting to get it. I sold that one to Outfront Media. I didn’t have to get one ad on it. They did all the sales!!

Here’s a picture of the digital billboard Tom built after winning the litigation…

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