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DOT's Styles returns PNE application package

By Rose Hooper
Some five months after erecting a sign in Dillsboro, PNE AOA Media applied for a permit application for the large, steel-frame billboard next to Apple Realty.

PNE submitted a billboard permit application Jan. 3 to N.C. Department of Transportation district engineer Rick Styles. Styles returned the entire application package to PNE the following day because it was incomplete - it did not contain a permit issued by Jackson County.

Because the heavily-lit billboard was constructed without a permit, Styles ordered PNE on two occasions - Aug. 17 and Oct. 28- to remove the billboard within 30 days. However, as allowed by law, PNE submitted an appeal to the Secretary of Transportation on Dec. 3. Secretary David McCoy has not yet responded to this appeal. NCDOT also posted a stop work order on the sign that prevents the placement of advertisements on the structure.

Meanwhile, in October, PNE filed suit against Jackson County for "denying its constitutional rights." PNE claims that the county's 120-day moratorium on off-premise signs prevented it from obtaining a permit to advertise on its Dillsboro sign.

Even though NCDOT has ordered that the illegal billboard be removed, it could take years to actually get the sign down, said Dale McKeel, executive director of Scenic North Carolina. "NCDOT ordered an illegal billboard built by Able Outdoor Advertising in Henderson County to be removed in May of 1993. But due to administrative appeals and court delays, the billboard was not removed until the summer of 1998 - five years later. Incidentally, PNE Media, which built the Dillsboro sign, owns the company formerly known as Able Outdoor Advertising," McKeel pointed out.

"If five months seems like a long time, think about five years." Public outcry after PNE's weekend erection of the huge sign in Dillsboro led Jackson County commissioners to enact a 90-day moratorium on off-premise signs (billboards) last August and to direct the county's planning board to draft a billboard ordinance.

An off-premise sign ordinance, though weaker than the planning board proposed, was passed last month by commissioners.

Back to Archive: 01/20/00.