Wheat Ridge council opens study on digital billboards, agrees to refine rules for city-owned signs

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — The Wheat Ridge City Council on a February study session reviewed options to allow digital billboards within the city and to create a single regulatory category for signs on city-owned property, with staff and industry representatives urging careful standards and a return to the council with draft code changes.

City staff presented three linked topics: whether to amend the sign code to allow digital billboards, how to define and standardize signage on city-owned property, and whether to pursue a public–private partnership that could place digital message signage on municipal sites. Lauren, city staff, told the council she had not made a specific staff recommendation and that the memo was intended to outline code implications and next steps.

The discussion followed public comment by Steve Shin of OutFront Media, who said his company would be interested if the city allows digital billboards and urged use of a public procurement process for city property. Todd Messenger, an attorney representing Lamar Advertising, said digital billboards can offer “even lighting” and dim to low brightness at night and argued they are beneficial for emergency messaging and local advertising. “These are really expensive displays. They’re really good quality. And they dim to about 10% brightness at night,” Messenger said.

Why it matters: council members said the issues touch appearance, traffic safety, local business promotion and emergency communications. Several council members favored a limited, cautious approach—allowing only a few conversions along I‑70 or limiting digital units overall—while supporting a city-owned message board for municipal notices and emergency alerts.

Key points and council direction - Existing rules: Staff reminded the council that Wheat Ridge’s sign code currently prohibits digital billboards and limits electronic message boards to certain zone districts under conditions. The city would need to amend code language to expressly allow digital billboards and then adopt standards for spacing, brightness/dwell time, and review process. - CDOT and other regulators: Staff and industry representatives said Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) regulations would apply to highway-facing billboards (including spacing requirements), and RTD and other public entities have separate advertising standards for transit properties. - Options staff will return with: Specific numeric limits (how many digital billboards), separation/spacing standards (CDOT uses 1,000-foot spacing in some contexts), brightness/dwell-time controls (industry speakers referenced 4–8 second message dwell times and automatic dimming), and a review/lottery or first-come-first-served allocation process. - City-owned property: Staff proposed creating a “city-owned signs” category in the sign code so that signs on municipal property (for example, at the rec center or city hall) would have consistent size and height standards regardless of the zoning underlying the parcel. - Public–private partnership (P3) model: Industry speakers described a P3 in which a private company installs, operates and maintains digital displays on city property at no upfront capital cost to the city and shares ad revenue. Industry representatives said such arrangements frequently include donated or low-cost time for public service announcements and emergency messaging.

Council concerns and cautions Council members repeatedly raised visual character and public trust concerns. Councilor Holten said she is “not a huge fan of digital advertising” and worried about advertisers the city might not wish to be associated with; she supported a city-owned message board for municipal communications but opposed allowing broader electronic advertising. Councilor Weaver and others said they would favor limiting the number of digital billboards on the highway and asked staff to return with options that prioritize corridor aesthetics and safety.

Allocation and fairness: Staff noted the city currently uses a lottery process in code for some sign allocations; industry urged first-come-first-served as more administratively straightforward. Staff warned both systems generate disputes and said protocols will be needed to resolve completeness and timing challenges.

No formal vote was taken. The council gave consensus direction to staff to develop more detailed options and return to a future study session with proposed code language and standards that address CDOT limits, spacing, brightness/dwell time, allocation method, and the public–private partnership model for city-owned signs.

What’s next: Staff said they will return with a slate of code amendment options and recommended standards for council consideration, including the possibility of a lottery or first-come-first-served allocation method, and draft language to create a separate sign category for city-owned property.

Quotes (from the transcript) “We didn’t make any specific staff recommendations in the memo,” Lauren, city staff, said. “We kept this memo pretty high. I’m happy to answer any questions.”

“If you decide to move forward with this with allowing digital billboards on public or private property, we would be very interested in this opportunity,” said Steve Shin of OutFront Media. “We feel those are many benefits that the city could achieve such as use of advertising space for public messaging and other community benefits.”

“Digital billboards more than make up for that,” Todd Messenger, attorney for Lamar Advertising, said of nighttime aesthetics. “They can be shielded to remove glare from certain locations. They can be shielded so that they don’t cast blow up into the night sky.”

Ending: Council members asked staff to return with concrete regulatory options and draft code amendments; staff said it would present options in a future study session and include details about CDOT requirements and how a P3 on city-owned sites could be structured.