Bates Area Civic Association

All please, see t he email back and forth over the billboard issue. I’ve taken out all but official emails.

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Thompson
Date: May 20, 2009 11:51:54 AM EDT
To: “Argo, Linda (DCRA)” <linda.argo@dc.gov>
Cc: 30 people cc’d
Subject: Re: Illegal Billboards- Request for Enforcement

Dear Ms Argo,
Thank you for your attention to this issue. However, your email does not adequately address the issue of the illegal billboards on the corner of 4th & P St NW and DCRA’s plan to remove these illegal billboards. Your office is continuing to act under the assumption that these billboards are probably legal and it’s just a matter of lost paperwork. I wish to point out that this assumption serves the interests of the local, taxpaying residents very poorly and is most likely wrong. As your own research highlighted, illegal billboards have been a blight on the District for nearly a century and there has been consistent opposition to them by local residents.

As you rightly pointed out, Section 3107.7.6.1 of the DC Municipal Regulations contains the provisions for billboards present prior to 1972. It clearly states that only those signs that were on the authorized list of 1931 are authorized to remain in place. Can you confirm that these billboards were on this list? Billboards that were not authorized prior to this date are not covered by this section of the code.

In the absence of the authorized list there is clear evidence that these billboards were then and are still in violation of Section 3107.7.6.1. This provision states that billboards present prior to 1972 are authorized “subject to the conditions in Section 3107.7.6.1 through 3107.7.7.15.” These billboards violate Provision 3107.7.6.7 (Design Standards) on several counts:

1. Firstly, 3107.7.6.7.6 states that “The billboard shall not be located on lots within 200 feet (60 960mm) of any Residential District, as defined by the current Zoning Regulations”. These billboards are located on a lot immediately adjacent (as well as opposite to) residential properties that have been present from before the turn of last century.

2. Secondly, depending on whether you consider the FOUR illegal billboards as a single billboard or four separate billboards, these violate either Section 3107.7.6.7.6.3 that states that billboard length shall not be more than half the street frontage of the lot where it is proposed (if you consider all four as one) or Section 3107.7.6.7.6.3 that states that a billboard will not be located within 200 feet of any existing billboards (if you consider them separately).

I encourage you to inspect these billboards as they appear to violate Sections 3107.7.6.7.6.11 through 3107.7.6.7.6.14 as well.

I also encourage you to provide any documents that establish that these billboards were legal prior to 1972.

The attachment you provided of the “permit” was most odd – clearly the company to whom that was granted is no longer the owner and operator. More importantly, this is not a permit for the initial erecting of billboards on this property, rather it is a permit to modify existing (and illegal) billboards. If you doubt that a permit to modify billboards could have been granted in the absence of any legal permit to have the billboards there in the first place, please keep in mind that over the last year your office has consistently maintained that the billboards at 4th & P St NW were legal purely on the basis that they had numbers on them (even after your own internal Permits Department confirmed that there were no permits for those billboards).

Given the flagrant violations of DC Municipal Regulations that these illegal billboards present I urge you to act swiftly to have them removed. Please note that the local community is becoming increasingly frustrated with DCRA’s inaction on this matter. As taxpaying residents we expect to have our interests served by those bodies that are the recipients of our taxes.

Sincerely,
James Thompson

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 7:08 PM, Argo, Linda (DCRA) <linda.argo@dc.gov> wrote:

Dear Mr. Silverman:

Thank you for your recent letter regarding outdoor advertising signs in the Mount Vernon Square/Shaw neighborhood. I’m also copying all the neighbors that sent me emails requesting the removal of the billboards located at P St and New Jersey, NW.

At the outset, I should correct a few inaccuracies in your letter. As you noted, the District has imposed a moratorium on the 32 existing “special signs.” This was done via the Special Signs Amendment Act of 2001 (D.C. Law 14-95, effective March 19, 2002). The act imposed a permanent moratorium on the issuance of any new permits for special signs and restricted the locations for transferring special signs. The location of each of the authorized special signs is located on the DCRA website (dcra.dc.gov) by clicking on the “Special Signs” link.

Additionally, the District has a long-standing moratorium on the erection of any new billboards. The D.C. Construction Codes, specifically Chapter 31A of Title 12A of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations, govern the construction and permitting of all outdoor signs. Under Section 3107.7.6.1, only those billboards in existence as of January 1, 1972 are authorized to remain in place. If a billboard were to be demolished, it could not be rebuilt or relocated to another site.

We’ve been trying to piece together the history behind this moratorium. From what we’ve been able to gather, billboards were first constructed in the District in early 1931. Their appearance caused an outcry by residents concerned that billboards were a blight on the city’s aesthetics. By the end of 1931, the District’s government had banned the construction of any new billboards in the city. The only billboards that could remain were those contained on the “Authorized List of Billboards, Three-sheet Poster Boards, and Wall Signs,” dated November 30, 1931. That authorized list was updated about once a decade until the early 1970s. Unfortunately, after contacting the National Archives, the D.C. Archives, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the National Capital Planning Commission, we have been unable to find a copy of that authorized list.

However, we are currently creating an inventory of all legally authorized outdoor signs in the District. Once we have created an accurate inventory, we will be sending out inspectors to investigate any signs that are posted, but for which we do not have any permitting information on file. For those signs deemed to be illegal, we will issue notices to the owners of the property and the sign requiring the sign’s removal.

We also have received several emails regarding four billboards located near the intersection of New Jersey Avenue, Fourth Street, and P Street, NW. Both these emails and your letter refer to those four billboards as “illegal.”

Based on our research, however, we believe those four billboards are grandfathered by Section 3107.7.6.1. I have attached a copy of a building permit issued in July 1961 by the D.C. Department of Licenses and Inspections (DCRA’s predecessor regulatory agency). The 1961 building permit authorized the removal of five billboards located on the property, to be replaced by four billboards. While such a replacement is not allowed under the current D.C. Construction Codes, it was allowable under the Construction Codes in place at that time.

I should also point out that for most, if not all, of the grandfathered billboards, DCRA is highly unlikely to still have records of the building permits issued more than 40 years ago.

We encourage all residents to let us know the location of billboards or other outdoor signs they suspect are unauthorized so that we can conduct a full investigation. To that end, we’re creating a special email address – signs.dcra@dc.gov – that will be up and running tomorrow morning where residents can email information about any sign they believe may be unauthorized, including the location, a photograph (.jpg), and any detail from the sign that indicates the owner and owner contact information. I will let you know of our progress in investigating the several outdoor signs you included in your letter.

I would also ask that you distribute this email to community residents, associations and websites so that we can best maximize our efforts at getting as much input as possible from affected District residents.

Best regards,

Linda Argo

Linda K. Argo

Director

Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs

District of Columbia Government

941 North Capitol Street, NE, Suite 9500

Washington, DC 20002

(202) 442-8934 (phone)

(202) 442-9445 (fax)