Hampstead has asked Carroll County to ban billboards along the town?s new bypass in an effort to preserve the corridor?s idyllic nature.
“Hampstead is a gateway into the county and we thought it would be nice if the new, pristine bypass were kept as blemish-free as possible,” Hampstead Mayor Haven Shoemaker Jr. said Monday. “We want to keep it uncluttered.”
The $85 million bypass, which is 40 percent complete and scheduled to open in late 2008, is one of the main gateways for motorists entering Carroll from Baltimore County.
While Hampstead, a town of 5,700, already prohibits billboards, much of the new highway lies outside town limits.
“We feel that the community would prefer this new roadway through the picturesque North Carroll area remain free of billboard blight,” Town Manager Ken Decker wrote in a letter to county commissioners. “We respectfully request that you consider amending the county?s sign ordinance to prohibit billboards along scenic roadways like the Hampstead Bypass.”
This is the first time Carroll is considering banning billboards, County Attorney Kim Millender said.
“This is new for Carroll, but other places have signaled out signage for regulation,” she said.
Commissioners vote today on whether the bypass billboard ban should proceed to a public hearing.
A billboard controversy erupted in 2003, when a previous board of commissioners voted to limit the size of new billboards to 32 square feet to improve aesthetics, address safety concerns and diminish light pollution. The vote upset businesses and outdoor advertising companies. Most of the county?s existing 360 billboards are in the 300- to 350-square-foot range.
Residents often complain about billboards junking up other highways, including in Finksburg, where citizens have long requested efforts to beautify Route 140, another major gateway into the county.
But landowners, who collect up to $1,000 a month in rent from outdoor advertising companies that place billboards on their properties, have resisted changes.
