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.Keep Reading
