T's billboard plan draws cold stare

Opponents, who include area legislators, say the jumbo billboards would mar their community's image, lower property values, and could lead to more unwanted commercial signs. The lawmakers say they are backing legislation to give cities and towns more control over placement of such structures.

"Billboards are more of an eyesore than a revenue generator," said Chris Walker, Quincy Mayor Tom Koch's spokesman. "The mayor strongly believes that something like that does not fit in the character of the city."

Desperate to raise cash, the MBTA said last month it would lease space in highly visible sections of its railroad rights of way to erect 32 billboards - with a total of 60 advertising faces - in 19 communities where the regional rail transportation provider owns property. The decision followed a ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court last year giving the T special rights to lease space for advertising without local zoning approval and declaring the agency has a responsibility to the public to raise revenue to hold down fares.

MBTA officials say they expect the billboards would raise $6 million a year. Bids on sites identified by the agency are due May 6, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. He said it would take nine to 12 months before billboards are erected, and many will be converted from static to digital signs in the future, to bring in more advertising dollars.

But officials in several communities are complaining about the signs, which they say are not in keeping with their neighborhoods.

In Quincy, where the T plans a billboard along Burgin Parkway in Quincy Center, officials said it would be a blight on a landscape the city is investing in to attract investors in its $1 billion redevelopment plan.

"The city did not incorporate a billboard as part of the plan, and I hope we never do," said Dean Rizzo, executive director of Quincy 2000, the city's economic development agency. The site is "the gateway to the downtown."

In Braintree, where the T plans a billboard at the merging of Greenbush and Old Colony commuter rail tracks next to Route 3, officials worry it could pave the way for more. Mayor Joseph Sullivan said the T's plan could "allow other state entities the necessary precedent to blatantly disregard our laws."

State Representative Joseph Driscoll of Braintree, a Democrat, introduced legislation requiring new MBTA billboards to comply with local laws - a move seconded by Representative William Galvin, a Democrat from Canton, where the T plans a billboard on commuter tracks by Interstate 95. "It's one thing to put something in the right spot, with taste," Galvin said, but the way the T is going about it is "not the way to do it."

The measure backed by Driscoll and Galvin, an amendment to a transportation reform bill, reflects views of many local officials who believe municipal zoning rules should govern where the T may put billboards.

Sullivan said Braintree's 2001 mitigation agreement with the MBTA over construction of the Greenbush line specifically excludes billboards. The agreement, Sullivan wrote to MBTA general manager Daniel Grabauskas recently, states "the MBTA agrees not to install any billboards on its Greenbush Line property in town" and to remove an existing billboard on T property on Quincy Avenue.

Quincy officials contend a special state law passed in 1967 at the start of the T's operations there states the city owns air rights to the agency's Quincy property and specifically prohibits billboards. Koch has pressed his assertion in a letter to Grabauskas. Pesaturo said last week the T was seeking a legal opinion on local positions from its attorney.

Quincy City Councilor Dan Raymondi said reaction to an 80-foot billboard on private land near the Southeast Expressway in West Quincy has strengthened determination to avert jumbo billboards. After a zoning exemption permitted it, a process "in which everything went wrong," said Raymondi, including failure to notify some abutters, neighbors lambasted officials, saying the sign spoiled views, lowered property values, and advertised alcohol in sight of school children. The board rescinded its vote, but the sign remains while the city awaits action in its suit.

Not all officials see highway advertising on MBTA property necessarily as a blight. "It's smart to look at possible advertising dollars," said Peter Forman, South Shore Chamber of Commerce president. "But maybe you should look at the new sign technologies, so it does not have to become a community eyesore."

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.