Car dealers have too many ads, city says
The latest U.S. row over the proliferation of advertising signage has broken out in the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where authorities are now reviewing regulations after an explosion in the number of out-of-home promotions operated by car dealers.
The dealerships have ramped up their on-site and on-street advertising in recent months, as new and secondhand car sales have gone through the floor, dragged down by lack of demand and the drying-up of finance.
And the new signs – many of them digital displays – have led the planning department in Portsmouth (pictured) to review the city’s rules on signage.
David Holden, Portsmouth’s planning director, said he is overseeing a review of the city’s signage, assisted by an external specialist, Tainter and Associates.
According to local media, the city’s planning board and legal offices are working on drafting a new sign ordinance for Portsmouth. The ordinance will create a number of “sign districts”, with regulations specific to each.
At a planning-board meeting in late October, officials reportedly drew up proposals to cover residential, industrial and large-scale commercial designations.
Coupled with strict zoning and rules on how often changeable digital signage can vary its message, Portsmouth council believes it can control the proliferation of signs across the city.
Holden said that his board’s task is “complex”, citing the example of a sign perched atop a car – currently legal if the car is registered, but not if it is non-registered, as a new car in a showroom would be.
While the debate rages in the council’s offices, two Portsmouth car dealerships have already been been hit with formal requests from the council to change the content of their digital signage.
The car dealers, both in Lafayette Road, have agreed to restrict the number of screen changes on their animated signs, and the council has placed a moratorium on any flashing signs in the city until the new regulations are passed.
Holden described flashing signs as “a distraction”, but has conceded that existing installations will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Plans call for new rules to be passed and formally in place by March 2009.
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