Villa Park sorting out plan for 'monstrosity' of a billboard

Villa Park trustees are likely to meet next week to hash out what to do about an 80-foot-tall electronic billboard the village permitted to be installed but then refused to license.

Some residents of nearby condo complexes complain the billboard is a "monstrosity" that shines flickering light directly into their windows at night.

This week, the village board deadlocked 3-3 on whether to grant Clear Channel Outdoor a special-use permit. The seventh board member was out of town.

It was the latest complication in what Interim Village Manager Eric Dubrowski - who inherited the situation when he took over the village's top administrative post July 1 - concedes has been "a very confusing process."

The billboard, on Roosevelt Road at Ardmore Avenue, was erected in May, very shortly after then-Village Manager Robert Niemann signed off on a building permit. As part of the agreement with the village, Clear Channel agreed to remove two nonconforming billboards on North Avenue - one sign was right in the middle of area slated for redevelopment - and to run the village's public service messages on the electronic sign.

The electronic billboard went up in "the blink of an eye," Dubrowksi said. "It seemed like, poof, it's there.

"As far as I know, people (living nearby) received letters saying there's a plan for a billboard, they looked out and hey, it's already up," he said.

The billboard was up before the trustees voted on an ordinance permitting electronic billboards in Villa Park, allowing just once license at a time. A special-use permit is also required.

The tie vote on issuing the required permit - which leaves the billboard in legal limbo - "complicated things extremely," Village President Tom Cullerton said earlier this week.

Trustees Deborah Bullwinkel, David Hegland and Robert Taglia voted against the permit. Trustees Albert Bulthuis and John Davis, along with Cullerton, voted for it. Trustee Jeff Blankensop was out of town.

Now, Village Attorney David Freeman is researching the village's options. The trustees need to meet to decide "where do we go from here," Dubrowski said.

In the meantime, many residents are upset.

"Whatever happened here, the way it happened was wrong," said Mary Wyse, who lives in the Willow Oaks condominium complex. She said the lighted sign changes every seven seconds, making it that much more obnoxious in a residential area.

"It's been a residential area since 1983, and they had complete disregard for us," she said.

"This sign belongs on an expressway."