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Traveling east along P Street, Shaw’s atmosphere changes around New Jersey Ave. Residents think four unsightly billboards that loom over the intersection of P Street and New Jersey are to blame. They have been trying to convince the city to take them down. New information that the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs recently discovered could swing that process in the residents’ favor.
The District’s history with billboards is a complicated one. Back in 1931, the city government decided to allow billboards, but citizens disliked them. So the city changed its mind: those signs already in existence were ‘grandfathered in’ but new ones were banned.
Fast forward almost 80 years. In 2008, residents of Mount Vernon Square and Shaw neighborhoods began questioning the legality of billboards in their neighborhoods. While the issue wasn’t one they’d been focused on, DCRA officials responded positively and recently took down signs at 9th and L Street and the 300 block of New York Ave.
But the billboards at 3rd and New Jersey, owned by Clear Channel Communications, were different. DCRA officials said their legality hinged on the 1931 list of allowed signs—which couldn’t be found anywhere.
Sometime in early summer, though, DCRA found the list and quietly posted it on the agency’s website. The billboards, it turns out, were supposed to be removed by 1934 because they were in a residential area.
The area is still zoned residential. “Nothing’s changed,” said Denise Pritchard, who lives nearby on P Street and is one of the key architects of the anti-billboard effort. The city failed to enforce its own laws, she said, but that doesn’t mean the signs should stay. “They’re ugly and attract a lot of crime. It’s a great place to do illegal activities,” she pointed out.
Lots of her neighbors agree: Pritchard and others are gathering written and electronic signatures against the signs and hope to have 500 by next month.
Karina Volmer, who lives a block away, explained her dislike for them. “The company is making a lot of money; meanwhile, everyone’s home values are going down,” she said.
Hammond Fisher lives a few blocks south on New Jersey Ave. and had a more visceral reaction. “They’re kind of ugly—I’m pretty sure the land could be used for something else,” he said. Gesturing at the colorful posters for Bank of America, Cricket cell phone service, and McDonald’s, he added, “We see enough of that stuff in the city anyway.”
DCRA officials say their legal department is looking into the issue and hopes to have a decision on the matter soon. |
