Discussion on Billboard at Main & Vine
Opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily
constitute any position by HEUNA.
Dear Urbana City officers and staff,
As a citizen and an officer in HEUNA, the Historic East Urbana
Neighborhood Association, I need to tell you what I think of
the new huge billboard erected on the corner of Main and Cunningham
Avenue, where the 2-story white building (202 or 203 E. Main?) was
recently demolished-to the thanks of many HEUNA members.
Wasn't that corner designated in the comprehensive City Development
Plan to be an open space to be landscaped as an "entrance" to Urbana?
That is, didn't you tell us at a planning meeting earlier this year that
the City wanted to use the space to welcome people into the Downtown area?
So why is a huge billboard featuring a McDonald's advertisement now in that
prime location? Is the city selling out the downtown plan? Why was the
advertising company given permission to use a prime City location to erect
a huge eyesore? It actually obliterates the view of the new Courthouse as
one drives into the City from I-74. We just got rid of one obstruction at
that location! I am lodging a formal complaint to you and the rest of the
City administration that thoughtlessly allowed this sign to go up. It would
have been more appropriate to sell out our view (erect this sign) at the
corner at Cunningham and University.
In frustration in the lack of foresight of our City leaders,
Dennis R.
HEUNA officer
507 East Urbana
droberts@uillinois.edu
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Dear Mr. Roberts:
Thank you for your e-mail about the billboard at Main and Vine Streets.
I agree that this is an unfortunate location and that our downtown
would look better without billboards. What you may not know is that
this billboard was actually relocated from the lot directly south
where the Elite Diner used to sit. This relocation was necessitated
by a series of agreements with Champaign County to allow the County
Courthouse to remain downtown. The new, larger Courthouse required
additional land area and parking which will be located at the former
site of the Elite Diner. C & U Poster, owners of the billboard, have
previously asserted their rights to continue to maintain certain
billboards in Urbana through a 1988 lawsuit settlement. It was in
recognition of this lawsuit that the City was required to find an
equivalent replacement site for the billboard. As part of the
agreement with the County and with C&U Poster, the Eliot building at
the northwest corner of Vine and Main was demolished. The site will
be used for the billboard and for a mini-park, whose improvements
will be donated by C&U Poster. It should be noted that the Eliot
building site is owned by C&U Poster and not by the City.
The mini park site will be landscaped with a walkway and benches.
Public Works is currently reviewing landscaping plans with C&U
Poster. The sidewalk treatment and landscaping will be designed to
match the new streetscape. There will be further improvements to
Main Street as the next phase of streetscape gets started next year.
Relative to other communities, Urbana does have very strict billboard
regulations in that their placement is limited to our major
state-designated arterials. But we do have a number of
"grandfathered" billboards (including the one that you are concerned
with) that are protected under the terms of the 1988 settlement. Two
years ago, we amended our ordinance to require aesthetic treatment of
billboards with respect to structural appearance, landscaping and
color choices. This amendment was geared at avoiding the industrial
looking appearance of some recent billboards that were placed in the
two cities.
As to the future of billboards in Urbana, approximately 18 months
ago, the City applied a moratorium on billboard placement while it
evaluated amendments to the billboard provisions of the zoning
ordinance. The goal of the study was to further limit placement of
billboards in certain parts of the City while avoiding a potential
lawsuit with Adams Outdoor Advertising (who have purchased the C&U
Poster billboards). After much work and discussion of locational
limits, the City decided to hold off on major amendments until the
terms of the lawsuit expires in 2004. It is also hoped that pending
litigation in other communities with respect to billboards will help
the City in determining how far we can safely go in limiting and
eliminating certain billboards. Please stay tuned for a
re-evaluation of this issue in 2004.
With respect to your gateway comment, the Downtown Strategic Plan
shows an illustration of University and Cunningham (not Main and
Vine) as a key entry into downtown. The reason for this was to
display an entry to downtown at an area where there is a very large
amount of traffic heading west out of Urbana and into downtown
Champaign.
I hope this helps to answer your concerns as to how this particular
situation has evolved. Please feel free to contact me with any
further questions or comments.
Libby
Elizabeth H. Tyler, Ph.D., AICP
Director
City of Urbana Community Development Services
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I can see why C&U had to be accomodated under the court settlement. But
everything in those three blocks (four, if you count the Fed building,
with the jail being one block and the courthosue complex two blocks) is
GOVERNMENT i.e. PUBLIC property, except, apparently, this strategically
located spot. The billboard should have been moved to the east side of
Vine, which is zoned commercial. Or maybe down next to the RR overpass,
which is more traditional billboard turf anyway.
As is, you can bet this will be prime territory during an election. It
shouldn't look like county government is sponsored by whoever grabs that
spot during the next election. But it will. Or maybe with all the
silliness about government privatization that we hear often, it can just
be used to tell us which big corp has bought off government this week.
No amount of landscaping will change the essential nature of the
tackiness of having a billboard right next to this government complex.
They should have just left it nearer to the Fed building and saved
everyone money; the Feds are just about run as a wholly-owned division
of corporate America these days anyway, so it could hardly have hurt
their public image anyway.
This situation just reeks of tackiness, as I, too, had assumed that we
would at least be rid of that damn billboard if we had to give up the
Elite to a parking lot. I'm glad you spoke up about this, Dennis. You
may forward my response to Ms. Tyler if she's not already on the long
reply to list of this email.
Mike Lehman
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Dear all heuna members:
Don't you think the billboard at the corner of Main and Vine is an eyesore? I
do! I thought when they tore down that crumbling cinder-block old Elliott Feed
Store building, that they would clean up the area and make perhaps a mini park.
That looks so ugly as a gateway to downtown Urbana to see the billboard there.
They moved it from where the former Elite Diner was.
Boycott the "Yellow Inverted Catenaries!" (aka McDonald's!) If you must do
business with them, tell them you don't like the billboard. It "stinks!"
visually and is a blight on the city. it was good to get that old brick
crumbling former filling station down, even those who mourn the passage of the
Elite. But the relocated billboard, It needs to go!
George R. Carlisle
carlisle@soltec.net