Court says no to billboards
on Mayfair building

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recently denied an appeal by Clear Channel Outdoor to legalize five billboards atop a building in Mayfair.
The ruling came Dec. 29, after a three-judge panel decided that no hardship existed on the property that would merit legalizing the long-standing billboards and that their removal was in the best interest of the public.
Clear Channel appealed an earlier Philadelphia Common Pleas Court ruling that deemed the billboards illegal. The company argued that its five signs at 7033-49 Frankford Ave. were legal under a temporary permit issued in 1949.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson found that the permit did not give the company the right to keep the signs, which stand 12 feet by 24 feet in size, there today.
"Pre-existing illegal uses cannot become non-conforming uses with a protected right to exist upon the enactment of a new ordinance prohibiting them," he wrote in his decision.
The battle to get the signs taken down began in September 2002, when Clear Channel applied to the Department of Licenses and Inspections for a use variance for them. Common Pleas Court later ruled against the company and denied an appeal in March 2006. Mayfair community leaders tasted victory, but only temporarily, as Clear Channel appealed to the higher court later in the year.
The latest Commonwealth Court decision comes on the heels of a new agreement struck between the city and the billboard industry in the summer of 2006.
Under the partnership, the city would allow billboard companies to self-regulate their signs in exchange for the city promising not to pursue litigation against them. In previous years, lawsuits filed by both the city and the billboard companies led to long and costly disputes.
The Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight has fought to get supposedly illegal signs removed citywide. SCRUB has maintained that a City Council ordinance passed in 1991 to limit the size and location of signs has not always been enforced.
Mary Tracy, the group’s director, called the latest court ruling, "a really great decision."
"The courts basically said this is blight," she said.
She said the Mayfair Community Development Corporation and neighborhood civic association and Councilwoman Joan Krajewski (D-6th dist.) were key in fighting the billboards. Other community groups, such as the Tacony Civic Association, continue to battle signs in their neighborhoods.
"I am very happy that the residents and the community groups worked together," Krajewski said.
Reese Hartey, president of the Mayfair CDC, said the signs’ removal means good things for his community’s main thoroughfare.
"It’s another step in the process of improving Frankford Avenue," he said. "It’s part of our strategic plan."
The billboards targeted in the court case stand atop a building with a public storage facility and a restaurant near the intersection of Princeton Avenue.
Tracy said the Commonwealth Court ruling did not communicate a time limit within which the five billboards must come down.
Typically, the company is responsible for the removal, but if it refuses, the city can get a court order. Further refusal could warrant the city removing the signs and billing Clear Channel for the cost.
A spokesman at Clear Channel said the company does not comment on litigation. ••
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com