Billboard Fight Gets New Hearing Thursday

The Springfield Zoing Hearing Board will once again take up the question of whether to allow billboards along parts of Baltimore Pike.

It's a new round of debtate on an old issue. The newest hearing is the result of a series of court cases and appeals in which state courts essentially said that Springfield Township can't issue a blanket ban on billboards.

Now, according to an event posting on Springfield Patch by a group opposed to any billboards, the board will consider individual billboard applications filed by BIG, the same company that has sought permission for billboards in the past.

One of the proposed billboards would be seen on the Blue Route but installed on Springfield Road between Springfield Mall and Smedley Park.

In its Patch event posting, the group Preserve Our Pennsylvania Towns calls that proposed billboard "tv on a stick" and says the billbaord would feature a giant TV screen that

"can change messages as quickly as every six (6) seconds, all day and night.  If you live nearby, you face the prospect of a “TV on a stick” looming outside of your bedroom windows that will visually shout advertising all day and night;  They distract drivers and are often proposed in areas of high pedestrian and vehicle traffic, creating unsafe driving conditions."

Preserve Our Pennsylvania Towns says that "with drivers not being allowed to send text messages on a 4 inch screen, you should not be bombarded while driving with ad messages on a 672 square foot screen."

The Springfield Zoing Hearing Board meets Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the Springfield Township Administration Building, 50 Powell Road in Springfield.