A D.C. agency’s attempt to wipe out four billboards in the Shaw area that it considers illegal has taken an ironic twist: Another D.C. agency recently bought space on one to advertise its programs.
The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in October ordered Clear Channel Communications, owner of the four billboards in the area of Fourth and P streets Northwest, to take them down. Clear Channel refused, and won a temporary restraining order in D.C. Superior Court directing the agency to back off.
But while the court action was ongoing, and simultaneous to the drafting of emergency legislation clarifying that the billboards are “unauthorized,” the Department of Health plastered an “Ask for the Test” ad on one of them urging residents to get checked for HIV.
The billboard was placed by a DOH media consultant, and was removed once the agency “was made aware of the litigation,” said health department spokeswoman Dena Iverson.
DCRA, meanwhile, has since backed away from its case against Clear Channel, choosing instead to go the legislative route.
“Sometimes the best strategy is not to continue with litigation that is likely to be drawn out, especially where the outcome is uncertain,” DCRA Director Linda Argo wrote to numerous residents who are seeking to have the billboards taken down. “Like you, our goal is to get the billboards down a quickly as possible.”
Mayor Adrian Fenty, Argo said, is expected to introduced emergency legislation early next month “which should remove any doubt that these particular billboards are illegally located and that DCRA has the authority to effect their removal.”
“That’s disappointing and surprising news,” Denise Prichard, who lives in the Fourth and P area, wrote recently to Argo. “We were given the impression that DCRA and the [attorney general] had a strong strategy in place to win this case.”
Prichard said the billboards are a “cover for public urination, drug use, and dumping,” in addition to graffiti.
The District issued a moratorium on most new billboards nearly 80 years ago, but some have slipped through or been exempted. Permits for the billboards at Fourth and P, for example, were issued by DCRA’s predecessor agency in 1961 to General Outdoor Advertising Inc., now owned by Clear Channel. Those permits may still be valid today, confusing the effort to bring them down.
An attorney for Clear Channel did not return calls for comment.
