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East Deer has formalized rules that regulate billboards in the township. Outdoor Metal Signs
Township commissioners have amended the zoning ordinance that regulates billboards.
The township began the process of reviewing its billboard rules after a June hearing for Butler-based outdoor advertising agency America First Enterprises, which does business as Oliver Outdoor.
The township’s zoning hearing board approved three of Oliver’s four proposed billboards. The zoning board said it needed more information before ruling on the fourth, but township commissioners have appealed that decision in court.
Township Solicitor Craig Alexander said he prepared the ordinance, and that draft was reviewed by township and county planners.
Those bodies returned the draft with comments, and a second draft was submitted for planners’ review.
Asked by Commissioners Chairman Tony Taliani whether the regulations achieve what the township was seeking to do with it, Alexander replied, “Absolutely.”
“The biggest concern was not having any billboards in residential or commercial-zoned areas, and they’re not,” Alexander said. “The only area that billboards are permitted to be placed in East Deer Township is in the industrial-zoned district.”
The regulations also set guidelines on height and size, special effects displays and images and messages, for example.
During the public hearing, no East Deer residents spoke out on the proposal, but one Tarentum resident did. After a yearslong court battle between Tarentum and Oliver Outdoor, an electronic billboard was built near the Tarentum Bridge this summer.
“We’ve got these electronic bulletin boards growing up like bad weeds in Tarentum,” said Bill Mayhugh of West Eleventh Avenue. Mayhugh said he attended Thursday’s meeting to see how East Deer was handling billboards in its community.
“It’s a view pollution, light pollution,” Mayhugh said. “With the historical area that we live in, it’s a disgrace with all these electronic bulletin boards going up.”
The ordinance won’t impact Oliver’s proposal, but it does set the guidelines for future billboard requests.
“It’ll then be the law going forward for any new ones,” Taliani said. “We are pursuing legal action to try to stop those other ones that were already applied for on various grounds.”
Kellen Stepler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kellen by email at kstepler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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