Plymouth Township Updates Billboard Ordinance

Plymouth Township voted to update its off-site, outdoor advertising sign ordinance Monday, in a move officials says will protect the township against legal challenges popping up in nearby communities.

The new changes aim to restrict billboards to two strips along I-276, rather than leave the door open for developers to present and win a legal challenge that could allow them to place billboards wherever they wish.

According to township solicitor Thomas Speers, Plymouth's current billboard ordinances are over 20 years old and are similar to those that have been challenged and struck down in other communities for being outdated and too restrictive.

"[Plymouth's] ordinances refer only to paper signs, and have a maximum of 135 square feet… the billboard industry is fighting their minimum is 300," Speers said. "They can come in to court and say that we are not permitting billboards."

Instead, the new ordinance establishes two zones along the turnpike: one strip that stretches 1,500 feet from the Schuylkill River to Conshohocken Road, and another 750-foot strip that runs adjacent to the Plymouth Woods Office Complex.

Township planning consultant Ken Amey says the zones were picked after the township worked backwards, identifying locations that were not within 300 feet from any historic site, school, church, retirement home, recreational area, or government building, and not within 500 feet of any single family, twin, town, duplex, triplex, or quadruplex dwelling.

"When you put all that together, we were left with those two areas on Route 276 that would be appropriate for the location of billboards," Amey said.

In addition, Amey said the ordinance establishes the following restrictions and requirements for billboards:

• Maximum 300 sq. ft. sign
• Maximum length of 20 feet and width of 15 feet
• Maximum height of 35 feet above road surface
• Cannot be located within 20 feet of a property line
• Cannot be located within 25 feet of any road
• Cannot be located closer than 1,000 feet from another billboard
• Will only allow one sign per lot
• Minimum lot size of 10,000 feet
• No adult, sexual, or obscene content
• No verbal announcement or noise
• LED usage limited to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Lighting limited to standards of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (minimum glare, minimum adverse effects)
• Site be maintained properly
• Owner agreement to landscape buffering
• If sign use is discontinued, owner can lose right to sign after 180 days

Given the restriction that billboards cannot be less than 1,000 feet from one another, the ordinance allows for a maximum of two signs in the western zone, and one sign in the eastern zone.

A number of residents spoke out with concerns that the billboards would be too close to the Oakwood at Plymouth development, located near the intersection of Gallagher and Gravers Roads.

However, Amey satisfactorily explained that the closest sign would not be less than 1,000 feet from the edge of that neighborhood.

Speers also noted that Lamar Outdoor Advertising, of Reading, Pa., had submitted a request that Plymouth Township make the maximum sign size larger. Speers said the request was merely submitted into the public record, and did not play a role in the creation of the new ordinance.

Council vice chairwoman Lenore Bruno and council members Maria Weidinger and Vince Gillen voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance. Councilmen Sheldon Simpson and Dean Eisenberger were absent.

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