This is a trivision billboard. If you’ve driven an interstate highway in this country you must have seen one before. I suppose they can provide helpful commercial information to the traveling public, but they’re often distracting to drivers and an eyesore for our beautiful natural environment. You may not have realized it, but we came very close to having about 14 new billboards like these go up along I-494 and Highways 5 & 212.
Really close, in fact, until this week when U.S. District Court Judge David Doty dismissed a lawsuit brought against the City of Eden Prairie by a media company called Advantage Media. Here’s a link to a story in yesterday’s Star Tribune that explains the lawsuit quite well.
Advantage Media hasn�t erected a single billboard, and has no office. Its address is a house in another Minnesota suburb. It�s one of several very small �companies� around the country represented by an attorney named Adam Webb from Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Webb has developed a practice of representing such companies, which submit applications for sign permits (typically large billboard signs) that he is pretty sure will be rejected by the city based on its sign ordinance, and then sues the city based on a variety of legal theories in which he claims that he has suffered a financial loss because his sign permits were not granted. Then he aggressively pressing for settlement.
Sometimes he gets the city to settle by granting him a portion of the sign permits he has requested, which his clients often sell to larger media companies who actually manage the billboards that Mr. Webb got the permits for. Sometimes the cities’ sign ordinance are not clearly written and the Courts order the city to issue Mr. Webb a permit or two. All bad outcomes for the city being sued.
Our sign ordinance in Eden Prairie does not allow for the construction of new billboards along highways through our cities. There are three old billboards left along Highway 212 in the Minnesota River Valley, but those will be gone someday too. Mr. Webb sought over a dozen permits specifically from Eden Prairie. His permit requests were rejected. He sued. After months of effort, his case was dismissed. End of story for us, hopefully. If Mr. Webb stays true to form, he’ll pack up his show and go on to another city and try the whole thing again. He’ll win some. He’ll lose some. But it’s doubtful that this gig ends anytime soon for him.
Our legal defense in this case was in the very capable hands of Mr. John Baker of the Greene Espel law firm. John is also an Eden Prairie resident. Our City Attorney Ric Rosow was also instrumental in working with Mr. Baker and city staff in presenting a compelling case for the City. There are two City staff members that I would like to publicly recognize for their extra effort in this case: Steve Durham in our Planning Division and Jean Johnson in our Police Department. They went way above the call of duty to assist the attorneys with historical information that supported our case.
Judge Doty’s decision is an important decision because it strengthens the position of carefully constructed for municipal sign ordinances across our state and nation. It’s a good decision for our city and for our citizens.
