Utah appeals court affirms $325,000 award to billboard owner, bars city from denying claim after demolition

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals on Aug. 14, 2025, affirmed a judgment requiring Salt Lake City Corporation to pay R.O.A. General Inc. $325,000 as just compensation for a billboard it had sought to relocate after the city denied the request. Judge John D. Luthy, writing for the panel, concluded the city was estopped from denying compensation on the ground that the billboard had been demolished before the relocation request was filed.

The case matters because it interprets how Utah’s municipal-relocation scheme for billboards works and confirms that a municipality that invites a property owner to pursue a statutory relocation request may be barred from later denying compensation on narrow grounds. “The City is estopped from denying compensation to CBS on the basis that it demolished its billboard prior to submitting its Section 511 request,” Judge Luthy wrote, using the court’s earlier reference to the owner as CBS.1

R.O.A. General (then operating as Outfront Media, previously CBS) owned a freeway-facing billboard on land it leased from Corner Property LC. After demolition of the sign in 2014 following the lease dispute, R.O.A. sought relocation under Utah…