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County, PNE headed to court after mediation fails

By Lisa Majors-Duff
Mediation efforts aimed at settling a lawsuit between Jackson County and a Pisgah Forest billboard company reached an impasse Friday.

PNE AOA Media sued Jackson County in October when commissioners first instituted a moratorium against off-premise sign construction and then adopted an ordinance to regulate such outdoor advertising. The sign in question, which Department of Transportation officials contend was constructed illegally just south of Dillsboro on U.S. 441, remains out of compliance with a Jackson County ordinance adopted in December.

Last week's mediation failed when county leaders declined an offer by PNE AOA representatives to lower their sign 10 feet, said county attorney Raymond Large. While this move would have put the sign at the legal 40-foot height requirement, two other points of the county's ordinance would have been missing, including requirements that the sign have only one face with no more than 300 square feet of advertising space.

"I wanted full compliance with our ordinance," county Manager Jay Denton said about the mediation effort. The two sides are scheduled to meet again in Jackson County Superior Court Monday, May 8.

Construction of the PNE AOA billboard in August 1999 angered Dillsboro residents, who appealed to county commissioners for regulation of outdoor advertising. The issue was handed to the county planning board with instruction to complete draft rules as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Department of Transportation officials ruled that the sign did not meet their requirements since it was constructed within 300 feet of a previously-permitted billboard and because PNE AOA was not issued a permit for the new sign. The DOT was the sole regulating agency of off-premise advertising prior to Jackson County adopting an ordinance this past December.

The rules commissioners adopted, after months of public debate and several divided votes, further outlawed the Dillsboro sign by including a section that allows only those signs permitted prior to the ordinance's adoption to be grandfathered. Since the PNE AOA sign was never permitted by DOT, it remains in violation of the Jackson County law.

The status of the sign as far as DOT is concerned was finalized in February with an order signed by N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary David McCoy. He dismissed the sign company's appeal of a stop-work order issued by the local DOT district engineer on the grounds that the appeal was not filed in a timely manner.

McCoy further ordered that "said illegal sign be removed or made to conform to the provisions of the Outdoor Advertising Act and NCDOT rules." It was expected that PNE AOA would appeal the secretary's ruling.

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