Quincy may challenge billboard permit
QUINCY - City officials are investigating how a 60-foot-high billboard on Willard Street received local and state permits despite rules against such signs, why some abutters failed to receive notification of an important hearing, and how to prevent something similar from happening again.
They also want to know whether the city has any recourse now that the oversized sign is up and touting vodka to passing motorists.
Jim Timmins, the city's lawyer, has been asked to investigate numerous legal and procedural issues - including whether restrictions on signs visible on federal interstate highways apply.
Timmins plans to make a report to the City Council this week, although he said his research is ongoing. The council's Oversight Committee is slated to discuss the issue on Tuesday
Property owner Biondi's Service Center won a permit from the city's Zoning Board of Appeals almost a year ago, and leased the structure to an advertising company that rents the signboard space to customers.
The sign looms over nearby Interstate 93 in West Quincy, and currently carries the message, "Make Cocktails, Not War." It's visible from Willard Street and nearby cross streets.
West Quincy residents packed a City Council meeting last month to protest what they called a blight on their neighborhood and criticized officials for permitting it. Neighbors also called city councilors to complain, said Councilor at Large Joe Finn.
Following a stormy meeting, councilors appointed Timmins to investigate the permit process and see that "it doesn't happen in that manner again," Finn said. The manner that concerns officials includes the city's failure to send notices of the Zoning Board hearing to eight abutters.
Timmins said a computer error cut short an abutters' list before legally required notices were printed for all the addresses on the list. The mistake has prompted concerns that some abutters may have failed to receive notices in other Zoning Board cases.
By all accounts, Biondi's Service Center followed the rules in seeking a variance from the Zoning Board from the city's sign regulations. Ward 4 Councilor Jay Davis, who represents the neighborhood where the sign was erected, last week defended the applicant and the Zoning Board, saying the Biondi family sought and received support from some neighbors before seeking a permit.
In fact, some residents attended last year's Zoning Board hearing to back Biondi's request for the variance, Davis said, and almost no one came to oppose it. In the absence of opposition, the Zoning Board chose to give the service station the permit - even though, according to officials, the city has a rule banning billboards that advertise "off-site" businesses.
Although some abutters failed to receive notices of the Zoning Board hearing in the mail, Davis, who is also the City Council president, said neighbors knew about the billboard because he spread the news when the proposal came to light more than a year ago. Knowing that opposition was likely, Davis said he called a neighborhood meeting, at which only a few people in attendance objected.
Afraid the meeting did not reflect enough opinions, he said he dropped literature at homes, walked area streets, and knocked on doors. But widespread objections did not appear until the billboard went up last month.
Representatives of Biondi's, a longtime neighborhood business, also contacted Curry Hardware, a popular business whose sign is considerably lower than the billboard, and was told that, while Curry would not support the billboard, it did not object, Davis said. Biondi also said that when the board is not rented, it will be used to advertise the city of Quincy, promoting tourism and economic development.
Councilor John Keenan questioned whether the billboard met state regulations intended to prevent roadside blight despite having received a permit from the state's Outdoor Advertising Board. Keenan said the billboard was closer to a park area than the 300 feet state rules allowed. Keenan also questioned how the Zoning Board could grant a variance from the city rule banning "off-site" billboards.
Timmins said I-93 appears to be one of the federally designated highways from which billboards are banned. He also said he was investigating any ways the city can respond to the billboard's presence to provide "relief" to the neighborhood.
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.
