Billboards on the Bay

We live in a beautiful place and we are reminded of this every time we bike, walk, or drive around Humboldt Bay. Unfortunately, for many years these scenic coastal views have been marred by the presence of unsightly billboards jutting up along the Highway 101 Safety Corridor between Arcata and Eureka. 

Humboldt Waterkeeper has been working for years to have these billboards removed - legally and permanently. There have been many unsuccessful attempts in the past to remove these billboards, but in Sept. 2013, the California Coastal Commission responded to our calls to address this blight. Since then, Caltrans has finally revoked permits for most of the billboards along the bay. Since 2012, 16 fewer billboards obstruct our beautiful bay views between Arcata and Eureka, and today only 3 remain. We will continue our efforts until they are all gone for good.

Outdoor advertising giant Outfront Media, Inc., has abandoned its efforts to resurrect a fallen billboard on the Hwy. 101 safety corridor between Arcata and Eureka. The company’s decision means the permanent elimination of a sign that was erected in Humboldt Bay’s tidelands (without a permit) more than 60 years ago.
As previously reported, the company had been seeking permits from various local and state agencies in hopes of rebuilding the billboard, which collapsed into the bay during windstorms this past January. The sign was located directly across from the Indianola cutoff.
Late last month, the Humboldt Bay Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners voted 3-0, with Commissioners Craig Benson and Patrick Higgins absent, to require an environmental study before determining whether the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
The rebuild project would also have required a building permit from the county, which owns the property and was in a position to collect rent from the billboard, as well as a Coastal Development Permit from the California Coastal Commission — neither of which were foregone conclusions.
But unbeknownst to the Harbor District commissioners, by the time they’d made their decision, Outfront Media had already asked Caltrans’ Outdoor Advertising Branch to cancel its permit for the billboard.
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Billboards along the shoreline of Humboldt Bay are controversial and the county’s Harbor District has held off on permitting the replacement of one that blew down last winter.
Owned by OutFront Media, which operates billboards nationwide, the damaged billboard is off Highway 101 south immediately adjacent to the Indianola Cutoff.
The billboard repair requires permits from a number of agencies, including the county and the Harbor District. Repairs to billboards are allowed if they don’t exceed the scale of what was damaged. Once repaired, the billboards can be operated for only a period of time – enough to recover costs. Those details were outlined when the Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners considered the permitting at an Aug. 28 special meeting.
District Development Director Rob Holmlund said the permit treats the billboard as a “legally non-conforming” existing use. If approved, the permit allows OutFront to do a “like to like” repair and operate the billboard for five years. After that, it must be removed.
But there’s a glitch in the permitting process – the post-repair operation period is supposed to be “rebuttable” and OutFront hasn’t been given opportunity to ask for longer operation time. No one from OutFront was at the meeting to comment.
During a public comment period, Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper said the proposed repair is not “like for like” and the damaged billboard should no longer be considered as existing.
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The Humboldt Bay Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners last night decided that they need more information before green-lighting the repair/rebuilding of a billboard that’s been lying face-down in Humboldt Bay since winter.
In a 3-0 vote, with Commissioners Craig Benson and Patrick Higgins absent, the board opted to require an initial study under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before ruling on a permit application from OutFront Media, the advertising company that owns the billboard.
Harbor District staff had characterized the project as a “repair” of an existing billboard, though plans to re-erect the thing involved removing the existing uprights and using an excavator to pile-drive a dozen new posts 10 feet into the ground. Staff’s assessment found that the project was exempt from CEQA review because the new structure would be located on the same site and have the same purpose and capacity as the one being replaced.
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At a special meeting this evening, the Humboldt Bay Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners will consider issuing a permit to re-erect a billboard that was damaged during January storms and has been lying face-down in Humboldt Bay’s tidal mudflats for months.
The sign in question, located on the west side of Hwy. 101 directly across from Indianola Boulevard, never received a permit. It was first erected in 1961, a dozen years before the Harbor District was created, and it stands (or rather stood) on land currently owned by the County of Humboldt.
Harbor District staff says the “repair project,” which would involve replacement of the damaged uprights and pile-driving a dozen new posts into the ground, qualifies for an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because the new structure would be located on the same site and have the same purpose and capacity as the one being replaced.
Jennifer Kalt, executive director of the environmental nonprofit Humboldt Waterkeeper, agrees with that recommendation.
“The Harbor District was created by the voters in 1973 to protect the bay and public trust wetlands for the benefit of all of us,” she said. “Rebuilding this billboard in the wetlands is contrary to protecting the environment, the scenic views we all enjoy, and the use of the Bay Trail that we’ve worked toward for decades.”
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On the last day of its monthly meetings Friday, the California Coastal Commission approved a bid by the city of Eureka to ban all new digital signs and billboards.

“I’m just delighted. We think they are really ugly,” said Michele McKeegan, the head of Keep Eureka Beautiful's tree project, a volunteer community advocacy group that supported the legislation. “They’re ugly. They flash and they’re often garish. People just don’t like them.”

The bill then went to the City Council, which passed a ban on digital signs and billboards from certain parts of the city and regulated the brightness of the signs. Because Eureka is on the Pacific coast and the ordinance would change zoning policy, the California Coastal Commission — the state agency assigned to protect and conserve the state’s coastline — had to sign off. 

Not only did the commission approve Eureka's ordinance, it asked the city to go farther and enact a complete ban on new digital billboards and signs across the city. The city agreed, passed the amended ordinance and sent it to the commission for approval.  

Along with banning new digital signs and billboards, the ordinance also forces the existing billboards to only contain static messages and only transition from one message to another instantly, without any transitional effects like fading out. The ads on the digital billboards can’t change more than once every 15 seconds, and they have to conform to both the city’s brightness standards, and the International Dark-Sky Association's brightness standards.   

“What we need are trees in our community, not digital billboards, street trees,” McKeegan said. 

Jennifer Kalt, the executive director of Humboldt Baykeeper, a coastal resources advocacy group, said the signs are also dangerous.
“The digital signs are more of an issue of light pollution and safety hazards, particularly on a quite dangerous stretch of US 101 that lacks pedestrian and cycling features,” Kalt wrote in an emailed statement. “We certainly applaud the city for being proactive about this, although it should have been done years ago.” 

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More Articles …

  1. Coastal Commission Restricts the Number and Brightness of Digital Signs Allowed in Eureka
  2. End of Billboard Blight in Sight?
  3. Billboard buy boosts Humboldt Bay Trail
  4. In a Split Vote, Supervisors Move to Allow Fallen Elk River Billboard to Be Rebuilt, But it Must be Removed in Five Years

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