Opinion A Fine Point Digital debacle: It's time for the city's 'si...
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Three years ago, Lamar Advertising Co. and the Pittsburgh Parking Authority reached agreement for construction of a 1,900-square-foot LED billboard and ticker on the building. The project required two variances under the zoning code, but an administrator issued a permit without requiring either Lamar or the parking authority to seek them.
That should not have happened, and work should not have started, but a big reminder of what took place still sits at the end of Grant Street. A civic group, Scenic Pittsburgh, filed suit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court demanding that the city, the authority and Lamar be forced to take down the partially completed billboard.
We agree this "sign of corruption," as labeled by Councilman Patrick Dowd, must go. News in February 2008 that Lamar had received a permit without public hearings or votes led to revelations about gifts a Lamar executive had given to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's former Urban Redevelopment Authority executive director Pat Ford, who resigned, and Mr. Ford's wife. The lawsuit says the sign is detrimental to Downtown and has no legal authority to remain standing. It asks that the sign be dismantled without specifying who should do it and that the city be ordered to enforce the zoning code.
Lamar executives have asserted that they acted in good faith because they didn't start construction until they received what they believed was a valid permit. They said that the company spent more than $1 million on the sign and, because of its unique design, its components cannot be reused.
Mismanagement by the city was the primary cause of this problem, but it's not clear whether Lamar or the parking authority should share responsibility for tearing down the sign.
Regardless, the legal action by Scenic Pittsburgh and its executive director, former Allegheny County commissioner Mike Dawida, brings Pittsburgh closer to the day when the eyesore left by this debacle can be removed.
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