Lombard residents see 'no good reason' for I-355 billboards
Lombard residents who are campaigning against village board approval of two electronic billboards proposed for I-355 will get more time to continue their quest.
The village plans to delay a vote until Nov. 2 on zoning issues, code changes and a lease that could allow the billboards to be built, although the topics still will come up during a Sept. 21 meeting.
The delay will give staff members time to answer resident questions and trustees time to research whether they support the billboards, which could bring in $75,000 a year for the village through a proposed lease with Lamar Companies of Gary, Indiana.
The billboards, which could be placed on the west side of the highway between North Avenue and Roosevelt Road, would create four surfaces for advertising - two with electronic screens to change content every 10 seconds and two with traditional lighted displays.
"There's not a single good reason for those billboards," said Lombard resident John Behrendt, who is rallying his Vance Street neighbors against the potential signs. "Not one."
Lombard began looking into a billboard lease with Lamar Companies more than three years ago to determine the legalities of placing two billboards on the property of the Glenbard Wastewater Authority at 625 W. Glen Oak Road.
Village staff members determined the billboards, which would be up to 75 feet tall, could be permitted on the site after approval by the Illinois Department of Transportation - if the village rezones the wastewater treatment plant to industrial instead of conservation/recreation.
Nearby residents say they don't want the land to be rezoned because it's near their homes and the Illinois Prairie Path. Any large signs built there, they say, could be visible from both places - especially in late fall, winter and early spring when trees aren't full of leaves.
Trustee Reid Foltyniewicz said the tree cover issue is one reason why the delay will be beneficial. He said he wants to see how visible the billboards would be from such backyards as those of David Gray. He lives on the west side of Vance Street, which is east of the proposed billboards and at a slightly higher elevation. Foltyniewicz said he visited Gray's house this week and gained a new understanding of resident concerns.
"It would be a big change to their neighborhood," Foltyniewicz said.
Many trustees aren't strongly pro-billboard or anti-billboard, Foltyniewicz said, although their preliminary 5-1 vote in favor of the signs kept the proposal from being rejected outright. One potential benefit of allowing billboards on I-355 would be the removal of two signs Lamar owns along Roosevelt Road.
Removing two of several billboards there could help the village's image. "When you're on 355, that doesn't feel like Lombard to me," he said. "It doesn't feel like any town."
Nearby residents disagree: Any billboard along the tollway would be a detriment.
"We want Lombard to stay a beautiful lilac town," resident Karlette Murray said. "We don't want it to stay a billboard town ... It makes us look shoddy, like all we care about is the money."
The money would be a "minor factor" in the decision, Foltyniewicz said. Funds from any billboard lease would not go into the village's general fund, but would be allocated to the Glenbard Wastewater Authority to pay for capital projects.
If the signs are approved, Lamar would offer free space on the electronic side to the village and other governments within Lombard to promote events and information. But resident Ken Hoffmann said people get information their phones these days, so roadside signs have little effect.
"We don't need to put these eyesores up," Hoffmann said, "because really, to me, they're useless."