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Board approves billboard variance near Bell Road after applicant cites power-line safety
Summary
The Board of Adjustment approved a variance to permit a static billboard 370 feet from an existing billboard (where 1,000 feet is required) at 10240 W. Bell Road, with the applicant citing updated billboard industry safety clearances around overhead power lines and operational constraints as the reason for the relocation and variance request.
The Maricopa County Board of Adjustment on Feb. 13 approved a variance allowing a new static billboard at 10240 West Bell Road to be sited about 370 feet from a nearby existing billboard, despite a Maricopa County Zoning Ordinance (MCZO) radial separation requirement of 1,000 feet within three miles of a municipality.
Staff told the board the subject parcel sits at the northeast corner of 100th Avenue and Bell Road and previously hosted a billboard installed in 2009. A second billboard approved in 2016 at Boswell and Bell made both signs legally nonconforming after 2021 amendments to county distancing rules (staff referred to the MCZO changes making radial separation the standard). The 2009 sign was removed last year; the applicant’s replacement would fall approximately 370 feet from the 2016 billboard and thus requires a variance.
Bill Allison, appearing for Country Club Ventures and Lamar Advertising, told the board the chosen location was driven by new industry safety clearances for overhead power lines—Lamar’s standard requires 17 horizontal feet and 30 vertical feet clearance, while the prior site had only about 12 horizontal feet to the lines. Allison said moving the sign to the previous pole location would place it in parking or drainage infrastructure, and that the proposed location avoids those site conflicts while meeting height and sign-face requirements. He said the proposed board would be static (non-digital) and would not be illuminated as part of the request.
Vice Chairperson moved approval “subject to the language in the staff report”; Member Carden seconded. The motion carried by roll call, 5-0 (Member Carden, Member Clapp, Member Ward, Vice Chairperson and Chairman Loper voted yes). The staff report noted no peculiar condition that created a physical hardship, but the board’s approval memorializes an established separation distance of about 350–370 feet for the referenced parcel should the board’s statutory findings be stated on the record.
No neighbor opposition was recorded during the hearing, and no additional conditions beyond staff report language were read into the record.
