As a former Council Member, I appreciate and respect the hard work that the Mayor and Council Member Holm have put into the negotiations with Clear Channel on the issue of taking down billboards.

Nonetheless, I am firmly opposed to permitting billboards to relocate. It amounts to allowing new billboards to go up on sites where there are no billboards today. It goes to the heart of what we have fought so hard to attain.

We have proven our authority to regulate billboards after years of litigation. The courts have issued a final judgment upholding our right to remove all billboards not protected by Federal law in 2013. We won. We are about to attain our goal. Now is not the time to give in. If we back track now, we may wake up one morning to find new billboards popping up across the street or towering over our backyards..

Just because a fight is difficult does not mean we should stop the battle.

I urge City Council to hold firm on the City's current ban on the construction of new billboards and the prohibition against relocation of existing billboards except where highway construction is involved.

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