Lawsuit prompts Quincy to ban billboards

Quincy city commissioners recently voted to put an emergency ordinance in place prohibiting the erection of any off-premises advertisement sign.

The main distinction of off-premises signs is they advertise something that is not located underneath them - unlike a roadside sign that is mounted above or next to a business and serves to guide customers into the business.

The ordinance stems from a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for The Northern District by New South Media Group.

New South Media Group specializes in erecting and operating signs that are used by businesses, individuals, churches, charities, and public governmental agencies to post commercial and noncommercial messages.

In the lawsuit, the company is claiming that the city violated the company’s right to free speech.

During an emergency meeting on Wednesday, June 30, Quincy City Manager Jack McLean said the dispute that has been filed in federal court is in regard to a digital sign.

In the complaint filed in federal court, Neil Bell - New South’s owner - says Quincy has several commercial areas where signage is useful to direct and inform motorists and pedestrians, including along Highway 90.

Bell says representatives of the company researched commercial areas of the city where they believed new signage was most needed.

According to the complaint court the following occurred:

“New South contacted landowners in these areas to discuss the prospect of leasing their property for the display of new signs in exchange for substantial rent payments. Many were interested in earning additional revenue from their properties and were excited about this possibility.”

Lease agreements were reached and executed with three property owners.

New South obtained a copy of the city’s sign regulations to determine what the company needed to do to obtain the city’s permission to post the desired signage.

The complaint states the sign ordinance bans numerous categories of signs; several of the banned categories of signs

“New South noticed that the sign ordinance categorized signs based on content displayed on the sign,” the complaint states.

According to New South, “dozens of categories of signs are exempted from city regulations based on the content of the messages that will appear on the sign.”

New South says the city’s content-based system of regulating signs made it very difficult for New South to determine how to apply for its desired signs.

New South sought to post one sign for religious messaging purposes only, the complaint states.

“Most of the messages of these groups are unrelated to the premises where the sign would be posted (such as promoting a fundraising event, or Sunday church services at an off-site church).”

New South needed the city to approve the plans and sign off on State of Florida Paperwork; Florida Department of Transportation must issue permits to such signs along state-controlled roads, such as Highway 90.

New South also sought to display signs with political messages and commercial and noncommercial content.

Bell submitted all three applications to the city on December 21, 2020.

New South did not receive any response from the city for several weeks.

Bell called the city but was unable to speak with anyone, and his voicemail messages were not returned.

On February 4, New South’s legal counsel called and emailed the city attorney.

The city attorney confirmed that he had spoken with the city staff about the applications, but he determined he would have to speak further with staff to determine the status of the sign applications.

The attorney said he would inform New South of any updates.

Two weeks passed and New Life hadn’t heard back from the city attorney, so New South’s legal counsel called and emailed the city attorney again.

City attorney Gary Roberts contacted New South’s counsel saying the permitting official was still considering the application.

Roberts advised New South’s attorney to speak with Charles Hayes, the building and planning director.

Off-premise signs, such as billboards, will be banned in Quincy after a lawsuit prompted by a company’s claims that the city is restricting the company’s right to free speech.

Hayes called New South’s attorney on February 25 and said he still needed to speak with others at the city, but said he would provide an answer the following week.

According to the court documents, Hayes failed to provide an answer that following week.

On March 10, New South’s legal counsel contacted Hayes again requesting an update.

“That same day Mr. Hayes responded by email to state: ‘We are going to bring this item before the Planning and Zoning Board at its next meeting.’”

The planning and zoning meeting was held on April 7, during which Hayes said all three of the application should be considered “billboards” pursuant to the sign ordinance and that billboards were not allowed.

New South’s legal counsel informed the board that the applications were for three different types of signs and that the City should not be considering the content of the signs anyway.

The board did not take position on whether the applications should be granted or denied and voted to pass the consideration of the application to the city commission.

The commission was scheduled to meet the following week on April 12; however, Hayes wrote an email to New South stating: “Your issue is not scheduled to be on tomorrow night’s agenda, we will have this item red for discussion on April 27th regular commission meeting.”

The complaint states New South was not willing to wait any longer for the application to be granted, having already waited three-and-a-half months.

During the special meeting, McLean said the emergency ordinance will not have any effect on the ongoing dispute with New South.

However, McLean said the city has had inquiries from other sign companies wanting to erect digital signs, since the lawsuit.

With the moratorium in place, the city will not accept or process any applications for off-premises signs.

“The good thing about that, if we do a moratorium no one is going to have any vested rights,” McLean said.

McLean said with the lawsuit that has been filed in federal court, the courts will determine what rights the complainant has because there was no ordinance in place preventing the erection of off-premises signs at the time the complainant’s application was filed.

McLean said the moratorium will remain in place until the city can review and revise the current sign ordinance.

He said the moratorium won’t affect any current signage, however no off-premises signs will be permitted to be erected while the emergency ordinance is in place, including billboards.

McLean said currently there are billboards located on Highway 90 heading into Quincy.

He added that while the moratorium is in place, the commissioners will decide if they will allow off-premises signs within the city, and if they do allow them, they will determine what size the signs can be.

They will also decide if they will allow them to be illuminated and digitized.

The commissioners unanimously voted in favor of the emergency ordinance.

Erin Hill - Gadsden County News Service

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Lawsuit prompts Quincy to ban billboards

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Quincy teen arrested on burglary charges

Gadsden County Times Legals – 7/29

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