PROVO — Prime property on I-15 provided Provo with enough leverage to persuade two billboard companies to take down more than 25 signs in the city.
The deals are the first of their kind in Utah and a striking departure from normal operations for billboard companies, which vigilantly protect their inventory of signs.
"They were difficult deals," Mayor Lewis Billings said. "I don't think people at sign companies are used to having cities call and say, We don't have any money, but we want you to take down some signs. ' Or to have a city say, 'Before you upgrade your sign, do this.' "
But in the past 18 months, Reagan Outdoor Advertising approached the city about upgrading its old wooden sign on I-15 near Provo's northern border, and Simmons Outdoor Media needed to renew leases for two billboards near the city's southern East Bay area.
Both companies proved willing to make concessions.
Reagan agreed to take down seven signs on city streets in exchange for the right to replace the aging wooden billboard on I-15 with a larger, modern board.
"The old sign was extremely dilapidated and wasn't much use because it was an odd size," Reagan's general manager Dewey Reagan said. "It really was an eyesore."
Reagan said such trades are rare in the billboard industry.
"It's been done in other cities around the country," he said. "I'm aware of something like this in Portland and San Antonio. It's a planning concept used in other places, but it hasn't been done quite like this in Utah, no."
It's also not something he expects to see again very often.
"There were some unique factors," he said. "I do not advocate it as the norm. I wouldn't want it to be the norm, but everybody benefited from it. The
city was able to remove some signs in areas it didn't want them and to clean up a dilapidated sign on I-15. And by making the sign on I-15 a normal size, it increased the use of the sign, so it was beneficial to Reagan."
Simmons agreed to take down 20 signs on city streets in exchange for new 10-year leases on two major freeway billboards south of the East Bay Golf Course, said Dixon Holmes, assistant director of Provo's Office of Economic Development. The smaller signs removed from the city were located on Freedom Boulevard, Columbia Lane, Riverside Drive and South State Street.
The city purchased the property where the billboards are located on I-15 several years ago, when it needed an area it could use to replace wetlands developed for the Provo Municipal Airport. When the time came for Simmons to renew the leases on the boards, Provo officials sought another swap. One of the Reagan signs was near fire station No. 2; three others were next St. Mary's church.
Billings' philosophy is that while billboards are necessary for the local businesses who find them to be effective advertising tools, they should be restricted mostly to the I-15 corridor and should be as attractive as possible.
"We've enhanced our community," said Billings, who won't spend money to rid Provo of more signs but hopes to continue to make similar deals when leverage allows. "You have to credit these two companies. These are very valuable assets for them."
E-mail: jeffh@desnews.com