Elk River Billboard’s Time Up After Split Vote

A trend of billboard removal continues as a majority of Humboldt County supervisors voted to remove one in the Elk River area of Highway 101. A five-year permit period for the billboard ended in late September, and the Board of Supervisors denied an extension request at their Feb. 10 meeting.

Toppled during a winter storm in 2019, the billboard was re-erected in late 2020 under a special permit approved by supervisors. Reflecting visual and environmental concerns over billboards along the Highway 101 coastal corridor, the county’s Planning Commission had denied a reconstruction permit, and that decision was later appealed to supervisors. The board’s 2020 approval of the special permit was conditioned on removal of the billboard after five years.

With that term expired, extension applicants Geoff Wills and Outfront Media returned to supervisors with arguments largely focused on economic impacts. Representing Wills, attorney Jeff Slack said enforcing the five-year term “will have an impact on the economic community here in Humboldt County.” He said the billboard, located between the Humboldt Hill and Herrick Avenue exits, generates about $15,000 in annual revenue and that “the value of the real estate with the billboard is about $450,000.”

Slack added, “Imposing a five-year term limit destroys that investment and these issues weren’t considered at the time that this five-year limit was imposed.” Wills similarly juxtaposed animus toward billboards with their contribution to the local economy and his income. “A lot of people really despise billboards – well, that’s the subjective opinion of someone’s personal feelings,” he said. “I’m here to tell you objectively that this is my livelihood, this is my investment.”

Those arguments received some support from Supervisor Rex Bohn. “I think in these economic times, the attack we do every week on local business here and small business is going to come back and bite us on sales tax, property tax, employee taxes and the people that actually work for these outfits,” he said. “But it’ll make us feel better and it doesn’t make me feel better because I was raised in a small business, a corner grocery store.”

An argument based on “vested rights” and compensation, raised by Slack and Wills, was repeatedly discussed during the hearing. In an introductory presentation, Senior Planner Steve Lazar said the billboard had been considered a “non-conforming structure” prior to 2020, meaning it did not conform to county rules and General Plan policies but was allowed to remain because it predated them.

That status changed after the structure fell, as the state’s Outdoor Advertising Act treats billboard reconstruction as a new build rather than maintenance of an existing structure. Planning Director John Ford emphasized that point several times. “The non-conforming argument is gone,” he said in response to assertions that the billboard remained grandfathered. “That doesn’t exist anymore – it’s not a non-conforming sign. I heard that several times and I just feel a need to be a little redundant on making that point.”

Although Lazar said more than 50 anti-billboard public comments were received in the days leading up to the hearing, few people spoke during the meeting itself. A representative of Humboldt Waterkeeper supported denial of the extension, and Arcata resident David Meserve called the denial a “no-brainer,” noting that Wills had agreed to the five-year permit term.

Wills disputed that characterization, saying he and Outfront Media “never had a chance to discuss it” with the county. He also said he did not know he needed both a coastal development permit and a demolition permit for the rebuild.

Lazar countered that “the applicant was party to all of the actions that were taken by the Planning Commission and the board and they were there for the hearing where the special permit was approved.”

Lazar added that the applicants “subsequently, in disagreeing with that decision, filed for a writ of mandate,” but “didn’t pursue that remedy, they withdrew that and moved forward to securing a building permit, which demonstrates, in our opinion, an acknowledgment that this is a restricted term-limited permit that they are building a structure under.”

Board Chair Mike Wilson noted “issues around impacts to fill in wetlands and issues around impacts to viewsheds,” emphasizing that the rebuild constituted a “new structure,” not maintenance of an existing one.

The vote to deny the extension was 3-2, with Bohn and Supervisor Michelle Bushnell dissenting. Ford said that if the billboard remains standing, it will become “an enforcement  action, either for the county or for the state.”