The Hanover Borough Zoning Hearing Board rejected a request Monday evening from a New Oxford sign company that wants to erect two billboards along Carlisle Street.
With little comment, the board turned aside Advert Sign Solutions’ claim that the borough’s regulations restricting advertising billboards to heavy industrial zones is exclusionary.
Acting board chairman Vance Stabley simply said there was a difference between general advertising signs such as billboards and signs tied to businesses and that the “ordinance doesn’t allow billboards in this area.”
Advert Sign was denied a permit in November to erect 35-foot-tall billboards at 810 Carlisle St. and 1225 Carlisle St. because they are not an allowed use in the borough’s local business and shopping center zones.
The borough designates its heavy industrial zone as the only permitted area for billboards, although there are six existing billboards in manufacturing zones.
Advert and its legal counsel appeared before the zoning board last month to request an interpretation of those ordinances, claiming they were a “defacto exclusion” of billboard businesses.
Advert attorney Daniel Carn argued that billboards can not be built and operated profitably in the borough’s heavy industrial zones because they are isolated and have a limited amount of vehicle traffic.
In a continuation of last month’s hearing, borough officials Monday night presented evidence and argument to back up the billboard limitations.
Borough solicitor James Yingst said the borough provides a “fair share” of available area for billboard advertising.
“The courts have said there is no fixed percentage that the borough has to allow for these signs,” Yingst said. “We think the area is already provided for.”
Yingst said the billboards at those proposed Carlisle Street locations would add to the clutter in the area, detract from existing compliant business signs and exceed the overall allowable signage for those properties.
“Billboards are typically out in the country or on large tracks of land,” Yingst said. “It depends on the size of the frontage.”
Advert owner Josh Smith wants to install a pole-supported, 11-by 22-foot billboard at 810 Carlisle St. at a cost of $ 110,000. That property includes the Suzy Sudz and Laslow’s Pharmacy, near the Weis Markets store. The north-facing side would have a digital LED display, allowing the advertising to change.
Smith is proposing a similar sized billboard at 1225 Carlisle St., at The Home Works, across from Hanover Honda. That unit would have dual-sided digital LED displays and cost Smith $ 180,000 to install, he said. Both billboards’ digital displays would operate 24 hours a day, he said.
Borough code enforcement officer Richard Rorrer testified that the allowable square footage for business signs in those areas can be no greater than twice the lineal-foot frontage of the business.
He said the proposed billboards, each 242 square feet, combined with the existing business signs on those properties would exceed the allowable signage for those properties.
Yingst said the billboards also would exceed the 25-foot height limit for signs in those areas and detract from signs used by businesses there.
“It’s not what this borough wants,” he said.
But Carn argued there is little distinction between advertising signs and business-related signs and the Carlisle Street locations are well suited to billboards.
“These signs (billboards) are appropriate in a commercial area where there is a significant amount of traffic,” he said. “These signs are compatible with the entire Carlisle Street area.”
Carn emphasized that billboards in the heavy industrial zone are economically impossible to build.
“There is no question it’s exclusionary,” he said.