The El Paso County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 on Thursday to approve two electronic billboards along Highway 24 – one in Cascade, and one near Red Rock Canyon Open Space. The advocacy group Friends of Red Rock Canyon urged community members to oppose the electronic billboard.
“We are against this proposal, for many reasons, which include not fitting into the recreational experiences Red Rock Canyon offers,” read a Sept. 3 email from the group. “The electronic billboard will be seen by those using the Open Space. The property is in unincorporated El Paso County, completely surrounded by the cities of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. Both cities do not allow Electronic Billboards. When Red Rock Canyon was purchased by the City of Colorado Springs over 20 years ago, leases on two existing billboards at the Highway 24 entrance were left to expire. The City of Colorado Springs then took down the billboards. Electronic signs will distract drivers turning left into Red Rock Canyon.”
Justin Johnson with Lamar Advertising explained the benefits of Electronic Messaging Displays (EMDs) to the County Commissioners. “EMDs offer a wide range of benefits, where a traditional sign serves only one advertiser, EMDs allow us to showcase up to eight businesses,” he said. “This makes advertising more accessible to small businesses in El Paso County. It also allows us to provide more time for non-profit messaging. We utilize open space [in the EMD] for amber alerts, FBI most wanted notices, emergency weather alerts, so I’d say that the conversion of the billboards helps us support the community beyond just advertising. I know that lighting is often a concern. This sign is programmed to dim automatically based on ambient light. It will not exceed 500 nits [a unit of luminance that measures the light emitted from a surface, equivalent to one candela per square meter] at night. It has an automatic shutoff feature if it malfunctions. Each message will stay on screen for at least eight seconds. There is no flashing, there is no video, there’s no animation. We worked with Dectronics to complete a photometric analysis of the emergency plans that both the county and the city have to standards. Under normal operating conditions, this sign is fully compliant with county standards.”
Manitou Springs City Councilors Julie Wolfe and John Shada testified in opposition to the proposed billboards. “The allegation of Lamar that there is no negative safety impact reminds me of the arguments previously made by tobacco industries that said there were no conclusive studies that tobacco smoking caused lung cancer,” said Wolfe. “It’s a distraction to drivers, and it is dangerous, and in the interest of our visitors, as well as our residents, I would urge you to vote no on this.”
Shada shared a petition with 180 signatures in opposition to the billboard, and also expressed concerns about safety. “Both locations of Highway 24 have safety concerns – wildlife, like deer, routinely cross from Red Rock Canyon Open Space as well as up near Cascade in addition to existing hazards for pedestrians and cyclists,” he said. “A distracting billboard will increase the danger of animal-vehicle collisions, as well as pedestrian and bicycle accidents. The Cascade and Ridge Road area are poorly lit at night, amplifying the visual impact and risk. Beyond safety, these billboards are a direct assault on the aesthetic integrity and natural beauty of our scenic gateway. Highway 24 offers precious views of Pikes Peak, the Garden of the Gods, and the foothills. These electronic signs would degrade this view shed.”
Commissioner Carrie Geitner questioned Shada over his concerns about safety. “Manitou allows the sale of marijuana, correct?” she asked. “We don’t here in El Paso County, [safety is] probably one of the strongest reasons. I’m interested in your reasoning then on why the city [of Manitou Springs] would allow such a dangerous thing. We know lots of studies about what’s so dangerous and allow people to partake and purchase marijuana out of Manitou Springs and then drive down these corridors that are really dangerous. So how do you compare that in terms of danger? How do you justify that?”
Shada noted that voters of Manitou Springs approved recreational sales of marijuana, not City Council.
“Do you recognize that being concerned about distraction when we have so many other things that are far more deadly to drivers is a bit of a hypocrisy, you could say,” said Geitner. “You inserted yourself as a city council member of another jurisdiction into the jurisdiction of El Paso County.”
Commissioners Bill Wysong and Holly Williams voted against the electronic billboards. “The fact that I have very recent personal experience with the – I use the term flashing but it’s really the transition – it did startle me,” said Wysong. “It did cause me to have to [say], ‘Okay, what just happened?’ So I consider that a safety issue. I would really like to see more investigation into that. I guess the methodology of the transition, I agree, the instantaneous is great, but that sudden blast of a completely different color, light, intensity, whatever it is, to me, I just can’t approve this and I’ll be voting no.”
Williams raised concerns about illumination and light pollution. “There are areas of the county where you want a night sky, or maybe a dark sky,” she said. “I think that would be on the west side. It’s hard when you live in a county the size of the state of Delaware to distinguish between having a lighted billboard out on Woodman by the Penrose Hospital, which I think is the last one we did, and a lighted billboard on Highway 24, near, in what we used to call the No Man’s Land, between Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs. So I find myself agreeing with Commissioner Wysong on this one, just because I think it’s a night sky area, in all honesty, where a lighted billboard does not fit in.”
Following the vote, Shada was taken aback by Geitner’s line of questioning. “I found it completely out of bounds,” he said. “We were there only talking about that issue. We weren’t talking about whether Manitou voters approved retail marijuana back in 2016, Ss I found that very inappropriate that it seemed to kind of possibly color her vote. I also found it very interesting that citizens of Manitou Springs that signed that 180 person petition, voiced their opposition to these [billboards], that apparently their votes don’t count in the county because this is unincorporated county. I think she kind of hinted at somehow or another that if you lived in Manitou that we were somehow disenfranchised from our opinion on this.”
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