City Council Committee Hears Arguments Over New Billboard
by Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A city council committee approved two bills on Tuesday that would rezone a plot of land in the northeast from parkland to industrial, in order to allow the installation of a digital billboard there.
"Billboards are the walking dead," said resident Michael McGettigan.
He seems generally opposed to all billboards, but to illustrate why he's particularly against the digital one that would face I-95, he aimed a flashlight directly at committee chair, Bill Greenlee.
"The staff believes taking an open piece of land and using it for a billboard represents poor land use," said an official of the Planning Commission testifying against the billboard.
Committee members, though, apparently were swayed by the bill's sponsor, Councilman Bobby Henon, who noted the site is not an actual park--in fact, it's been paved over-- and would generate tax revenue as a billboard pad.
The state would have final say over whether a billboard actually goes there.