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Wheat Ridge council studies allowing digital billboards, city‑owned message boards and public‑private ad partnerships
Summary
City staff, advertising firms and councilors discussed potential code changes to allow digital billboards, create consistent rules for signs on city property and explore public‑private partnerships to host messages and share revenue. No ordinance was adopted; council gave staff direction to return with specific standards and to explore options.
Steve Shin, a representative of OutFront Media, asked the Wheat Ridge City Council to consider allowing digital billboards and suggested using a procurement process if city‑owned property is offered for advertising. "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," Shin said during public comment.
City staff outlined three linked topics for council direction: (1) whether to amend the sign code to allow digital billboards, (2) whether to create a single, consistent sign category for city‑owned property, and (3) whether to pursue a public‑private partnership (PPP) that would place digital signs on city property and share advertising revenue. Lauren (city staff) explained the legal and zoning issues, saying the city currently prohibits digital billboards in code and that any change would require specific standards such as number, spacing and message timing.
The meeting included presentations from billboard industry representatives. Todd Messenger, attorney for Fairfield and Woods PC, speaking for Lamar Advertising, urged the council to consider first‑come, first‑served spacing rather than a lottery and described benefits he said digital billboards can provide, including emergency messaging and the ability to dim displays at night. "These electronic systems . . . allow you to have weather report or weather alerts, tornado alerts . . . traffic alerts," Messenger said.
Councilors expressed varied views. Councilor Holten said she is not a fan of electronic advertising and worried about visual clutter and loss of control over content on private billboards; she supported a city‑owned message board controlled by the city but opposed a PPP for commercial advertising. Mayor Pro Tem Stites and Councilor Weaver were more open to exploring limited numbers of digital billboards on the I‑70 corridor and to creating city message boards, noting potential emergency‑notification benefits. Several councilors asked staff to return with more detailed code options, spacing alternatives, and examples of how a PPP might be structured.
Staff and industry provided technical and regulatory context: CDOT regulates highway electronic billboards and has spacing and brightness rules; Lauren said following CDOT spacing could allow up to seven electronic highway billboards but the city could impose stricter rules. Lamar representatives said typical interstate billboards are substantially larger than on‑site business reader boards and described a dwell time (how long a static message remains visible) of eight seconds for their displays, while CDOT rules reference a four‑second dwell time.
Council consensus at the end of the study session directed staff to return to a future study session with specific options for (a) amending the sign code to allow digital billboards with proposed standards, (b) defining a city‑owned sign category that would set consistent size and placement rules for signs on public property, and (c) exploring the legal and procurement implications of a PPP for city signs and any revenue‑sharing options. No formal ordinance or permit changes were approved at the meeting.
The discussion underscored two recurring tensions: (1) time, place and manner regulation (where the city can limit spacing, size and brightness) versus content regulation (what messages may appear on privately owned billboards), and (2) the desire by some councilors for a city‑controlled way to push emergency messages to residents while others worried a PPP could blur city messages and paid advertising. Staff said further drafts would include concrete code language, spacing maps, and examples of procurement and contract language for council review.
