8/25/14 - Officials in the Howell school district are weighing their options after a proposal for an LED billboard was recommended for rejection by the Howell City Planning Commission. The district has already signed a contract with a sign company to install a 10-foot by 30-foot LED billboard near its bus garage. The sign would show ads for the district some of the time, but it would mostly display commercial advertisements as a way to generate revenue for the district. Associate Superintendent Rick Terres told the planning commission the ten-year contract would provide the district with more than $700,000. However, the members of the planning commission were against the idea, saying the city bans digital signs as well as signs of that size. They unanimously recommended that the districtâs application for a special land use permit be denied. Howell Schools Associate Superintendent Rick Terres tells WHMI until recently, the city would not have even gotten a say in the approval process, which would have gone to the State Department of Education instead. However, a recent court case on the western side of the state contested that final approval was up to the local municipality instead. Members of the planning commission said sign companies had been taking advantage of school districts to circumvent local sign ordinance. (TD)
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