The Salt Lake County Council, having had a week to tinker with the details of an emotionally charged cap-and-replace billboard ordinance, passed the ordinance in its final form Tuesday.
Of the nine council members, Jim Bradley, Cortlund Ashton and Marv Hendrickson dissented.
The council last week approved the substance of the ordinance, which puts a cap on the total number of billboards in the unincorporated areas of the county (104 currently built or pending). Rather than completely banning new billboards, the council opted to allow them but only if existing billboards of the same size are torn down first.
Wasatch Front jurisdictions seeking to limit the number of billboards have split on the issue, some installing an outright ban on new signs and others choosing the cap-and-replace option.
The theory behind cap-and-replace is that the most egregious signs will be more likely to be moved to more agreeable locations than under a ban, which would encourage sign companies to keep existing signs up forever.
Under the plan, billboard companies will have three years after tearing down a billboard to build another one somewhere else.
As he did last week, Ashton again sought to put a "sunset" provision in the ordinance, whereby the cap-and-replace would automatically be replaced by an outright ban after 36 months unless the council renews it, but was voted down.
"It's more of a motivation" for sign companies to prove the cap-and-replace system works, Ashton said. "It's more responsive to what the community councils have asked us to do. It's more responsive to our constituents."
County residents have strongly advocated an outright ban. Seeing that wasn't in the cards, however, the Association of Community Councils Together, comprising representatives from all the unincorporated community councils, sent a letter to the council last week strongly supporting Ashton's sunset provision.
Instead the council voted to review progress of the ordinance every six months.
"If we bring this up on a six-month review, the onus is on the sign companies to do something," Councilman Russell Skousen said.
The majority of council members decided to support the cap-and-replace over the ban — despite the feelings of their constituents on the matter — because it appeared that, while more complicated and not as easily understood as a way to limit billboards, cap-and-replace would be more effective in the long run than an outright ban.
"One thing that's bothered me over the past few weeks has been (the impression) that the county has been asleep at the wheel," Councilman Michael Jensen said.
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