The Tennessean
In an unprecedented move, Metro attorneys have filed suit to overturn a city board's decision to allow the installation of a digital billboard in south Nashville.
The Metro Law Department sued in Davidson County Chancery Court today to reverse the Board of Zoning Appeals' ruling earlier this year that Richardson Outdoor Advertising can build a 50-foot-tall digital billboard to replace a standard board at Bell and Murfreesboro roads.
Metro attorney Doug Sloan confirmed the suit had been filed and said it was the first time Metro had ever appealed a decision by the zoning appeals board. But he declined to comment otherwise, citing the pending litigation.
The Metro Codes department initially denied a permit to Richardson Outdoor Advertising last spring. The denial relied on a legal interpretation that digital billboards must be at least 2,000 feet from other billboards.
"We turned it down because it represented a change in use," Metro Codes Director Terry Cobb said today.
But the Board of Zoning Appeals, which is made up of appointed volunteers, overruled the staff's interpretation, upsetting some area residents. A majority of board members voted that a state grandfathering statute prevents Metro from restricting the use of a digital billboard at that location.
Metro lawyers are now arguing that the grandfathering protections apply to the use - a traditional billboard - and not to the structure. They say the city has the power to prevent the alterations necessary to install a digital board at that site.
Jim Murphy, a former Metro law director who represented Richardson Outdoor Advertising before the Board of Zoning Appeals, declined to comment tonight, saying he hadn't been able to talk to his client yet.
Nearly two dozen people from neighborhoods around Bell and Murfreesboro roads showed up when the zoning appeals board decided the case in June. Karen Johnson, who later won the Metro Council seat from the area, said at the time, "We are working very hard as a community to address issues that could adversely affect our safety and quality of life. In this case it is very disturbing that a static billboard is considered the same as a digital one."
