THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 TAG: 9503220268
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Backers of a proposal to put an electronic billboard off Waterside Drive ran smack into the leading guardians of public appearance at a hearing Tuesday before the City Council.
A stream of residents representing the city's garden clubs and civic leagues opposed the proposal, telling the council that it would return Norfolk to an era when it was degraded by blaring business signs and billboards.
``If you ride downtown, take a look at the signs,'' said Peggy Twohy, a member of the Garden Club of Norfolk. ``There is a restraint that gives dignity to the city. This proposal is the modern equivalent of the old billboard.''
One sign could lead to more, Twohy said, and the city could end up like it was in the World War II era, when tawdry signs for bars and theaters dominated Main Street.
About 30 people - most of them critical of the proposal - spoke at the hearing. The council, which had traded heated barbs on the issue during its work session, opted not to vote on the matter Tuesday, in part because Councilman Joseph N. Green Jr. was absent. Green is one of four council members, a majority, who have said they favor the sign. The council agreed to consider the issue in two weeks.
Before the sign could be erected, the council would have to amend a zoning law that prohibits off-site signs on public property. If the law is changed, the council would still have to consider requests for specific signs separately.
Driving the issue is a proposal by Richard James, an entrepreneur and Norfolk detective, who wants to put an electronic sign on city land off Waterside Drive between the Omni International Hotel and Waterside.
James' company, Executive Ads, would build the sign. In return for allowing it on city land, James' company would permit the city to use the sign 51 percent of the time for public service messages. The other 49 percent would be commercial advertising.
The issue has been a contentious one for the council. In its informal session in a conference room before the public hearing Tuesday, the council struggled to talk about the issue without resorting to personal attacks.
Toward the end of the session, the struggle seemed to fail in a series of exchanges among Councilmen Herbert Collins, G. Conoly Phillips and Paul R. Riddick.
It began when Collins urged council members to avoid bringing race into discussions unnecessarily. Riddick, Collins and the sign's proponent, James, are black.
``The seven of us shouldn't make anything racial,'' Collins said. ``We don't have time for that nonsense.''
``I'll go along with that, just let's stop the tirades in public about racism,'' said Phillips, in a veiled reference to Riddick and remarks Riddick has made at past council meetings about race being a factor in the sign debate and other council matters.
Riddick said Phillips brought up race ``in very subtle ways.'' Riddick continued speaking, his voice rising, as he rose from his chair and began walking from the room.
``You make the most racist goddamn remarks I ever heard in my life,'' Riddick said over Phillips' protests. ``You might be a born-again Christian, but I know the buzzwords, that all of you born-again Christians sometimes'' say.
The council then left the meeting for a briefing in the formal chamber. But Mayor Paul D. Fraim brought the council into the conference room again before the public hearing began.
``How we do something is as important as what we decide,'' Fraim told the council. ``In this room, we need to do it in a fashion that we all gain respect for each other.''
The public hearing offered a split between those who said a modern electronic sign was a way for the city to promote itself for free, and those who said the project would degrade downtown's ambience.
``It could tell about a sale at Nordstrom'' an anchor of the proposed MacArthur Center mall, the sign's proponent, James, said at the podium. ``It could tell convention-goers where they could get a reasonably priced dinner.''
But opponents painted a picture of passersby being greeted by a city message for the latest event at the Harrison Opera House, followed by a commercial message for a soft drink or even a sale on handguns.
In the council session, City Attorney Philip R. Trapani said the City Council would have only limited ability to regulate the contents of the commercial messages. Standard interpretations of the First Amendment of the Constitution prohibit governmental bodies from regulating the content of commercial speech, Trapani said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Councilmen Paul R. Riddick, above, and G. Conoly Phillips, below,
traded barbs.
by CNB