By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- Lawyers for a Georgia company on Friday formally asked the city and county governments to change Durham law to allow the placement of digital billboards on most of the area's major road corridors.

The request from Fairway Outdoor Advertising seeks the repeal of existing law that bars billboard owners from enlarging, moving or improving their roadside advertisements.

The company proposes replacing it with a new law that would create a so-called "billboard overlay district" along the Durham Freeway, U.S. 70, U.S. 15-501, U.S. 501, Interstate 85 and the proposed East End Connector.

It would cap the number of billboards at existing levels and would allow owners to relocate and rebuild billboards along the specified highway corridors.

A billboard could only go up on non-residentially zoned land, and would have to be a minimum of 1,000 feet from another billboard, at least 500 feet from a historic district and at least 200 feet from residential property.

The proposal would give billboard owners permission to convert up to 25 percent of their total advertising space into digital billboards, which are capable of displaying a new message every eight seconds or so.

Owners of digital billboards would have to agree to display at least one eight-second public-service announcement per minute. They'd also have to display for up to two hours at a time emergency messages including Amber and Silver alerts, information about terrorist attacks, natural disasters and notices about public infrastructure failures.

The language about emergency messages tied into what Fairway and its lawyers singled out as the primary reason for making the change, the need under local policy to "provide an effective program of emergency management" in Durham.

Fairway's justification also noted that Durham's billboard controls predate the development of digital billboards. The new technology "represents a change in circumstances that warrants a revision" of the law, it said.

City/County Planning Director Steve Medlin confirmed receiving the request Friday afternoon, during a meeting with lawyers from K&L Gates, an RTP law firm that represents Fairway.

Lewis Cheek, a K&L Gates lawyer and former county commissioner, signed the application. He confirmed before meeting with Medlin that Fairway was going ahead with the request.

Under Durham law, the filing triggers a review process that will require an advisory opinion from the Durham Planning Commission and votes by the City Council and the County Commissioners.

The Joint City/County Planning Committee -- a group that includes three council members, three commissioners and the chairman of the Planning Commission -- also could be involved.

But the law gives City Manager Tom Bonfield and County Manager Mike Ruffin the authority, in consultation with the chair and vice chair of the joint panel, to waive that step.

Public hearings would precede the Planning Commission's advisory vote and any formal action by the two elected boards.

Citizen opposition is certain.

Members of one of Durham's big-three political-action groups, the People's Alliance, voted in January to oppose any change to the existing ordinance.

A poll commissioned by the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau also found over the summer that the public supports the existing ordinance by roughly a 3-to-1 margin.

Specifically, the survey found that 72 percent of residents support the existing ordinance, 8 percent didn't support it and 20 percent were undecided.

Whites and blacks were about equally likely to favor the current ordinance, and there were no significant differences of opinion between men and women, according to the news releases bureau leaders put out about the survey in early October.

Friday's filing came three days after a city election that saw little debate on the issue.

Among the winning candidates, Mayor Bill Bell told the People's Alliance he'd only "render [an] opinion" on changing the ordinance after a public hearing. Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden said she opposed a change "at this point."

Councilman Howard Clement said he would support a change to "allow promotion of public safety considerations." And Councilman Mike Woodard, though non-committal, said Fairway and other billboard owners have "a very steep threshold to overcome," given that opposition to a change seems more widespread than expected.

Fairway's general manager for eastern North Carolina, Paul Hickman, said the filing came after the company "recently completed the public outreach process" members of the Joint City/County Planning Committee request last year.

A Hickman subordinate, Aaron Guyton, also noted that the company was recently involved in a merger.

A Washington, D.C., investment firm bought Fairway in mid-October and combined it with another billboard company, Magic Media. The new company is called Fairway Magic Outdoor LLC.

A news release on the acquisition said the new firm is now "one of the largest privately owned outdoor advertising companies" in the U.S., with more than 19,500 billboards and posters in 22 states. Fairway Outdoor's former CEO, Mark Moyer, was named leader of the combined operation.