Digital Billboards

Adams Outdoor Advertising wants to convert a traditional billboard at Coleman Boulevard and Live Oak Drive in Mount Pleasant, and five more in other locations, to digital billboards. The town prohibits digital signs, but the billboard company claims that's unconstitutional. Brad Nettles/Staff

MOUNT PLEASANT — Digital billboards could appear in a half-dozen locations along busy roads, from the north end of town to Coleman Boulevard, if Adams Outdoor Advertising wins a zoning dispute.

Mount Pleasant prohibits digital billboards, but Adams Outdoor claims the town's ban is unconstitutional.

The company has been seeking the town's permission to convert existing conventional billboards to digital ones: Picture gigantic flat-screen televisions with changing messages along U.S. Highway 17, Interstate 526 and Coleman Boulevard.

There's one at the bottom of the U.S. 17 off-ramp from the Ravenel Bridge. There's another next to Page's Okra Grill restaurant on Coleman Boulevard, another near Mellow Mushroom along U.S. 17, and another near Boone Hall Farms Market. Two are along I-526.

“I hate the billboard, period," said Page's Okra Grill owner Courtney Page. "I’ve reached out to see if I can buy the little piece of property it sits on."

“I think it’s tacky on Coleman, and I think if it’s digital it would be even tackier," she said.

Efforts to reach the Adams Outdoor official who filed the zoning applications in Mount Pleasant, Derek Arsenault, were unsuccessful. The company is located in North Charleston, which allows digital billboards in certain locations.

This isn't the first time a digital billboard has been proposed in a prominent location in Mount Pleasant. There was an uproar three years ago when Adams Outdoor sought to convert a traditional billboard to a digital one on U.S. 17 across from Snee Farm, adjacent to the graveyard of historic Christ Church.

That billboard location was in unincorporated Charleston County, next to the now-closed Richard's Bar and Grill. Surrounded by Mount Pleasant, but not a part of it, the property was outside the town's legal reach, but the county refused to approve a needed zoning change. 

Mount Pleasant does not allow digital billboards and earlier rejected Adams Outdoor's request for permits to convert six signs to digital ones. The company filed appeals with the town, which this month were postponed for 90 days at the company's request.

“In this case, what’s prohibited is the digital part," said Jeff Ulma, Mount Pleasant's Planning & Development Department director.

Digital Billboards

Adams Outdoor Advertising wants to convert six billboards in Mount Pleasant, including this one on U.S. Highway 17 North at the Ravenel Bridge, to digital billboards. Brad Nettles/Staff

Adams Outdoor's appeal filed with Mount Pleasant claims the town's sign ordinance "is unconstitutional, as it violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, both on the face of the ordinance, and as it is applied to the sign permit applications of Adams Outdoor."

The company contends if the town's ordinance is constitutional, then the billboard company is entitled to a zoning variance.

The city of Charleston also prohibits digital billboards. Jacob Lindsey, director of Charleston's Department of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability, said the city has no zoning appeals or challenges pending.

"We have total confidence in our ability to regulate signage in our city," Lindsey said.

Charleston County allows digital billboards in certain locations — generally, in industrial areas. 

However, areas zoned for industrial use aren't necessarily out-of-the-way places. The county's landfill on Bees Ferry Road in West Ashley is a zoned as an industrial area, and there's a billboard on nearby property, but it's also surrounded by suburban communities.

Adams Outdoor is seeking county zoning approval for a digital billboard that would be closer to the road than an existing, traditional billboard, and closer than rules would otherwise allow. More than 1,000 people have signed an online petition opposing a digital billboard there.

In that case, the company was already allowed to have a digital billboard, but needed permission to erect one closer to Bees Ferry Road. A compromise — allowing a digital billboard, but a smaller one than would be allowed at the current location — has received initial approval from the county.

Reach David Slade at 843-937-5552. Follow him on Twitter @DSladeNews.

David Slade is a senior Post and Courier reporter. His work has been honored nationally by Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Scripps foundation and others. Reach him at 843-937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com

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