Revere board discusses billboard freeze

REVERE – Revere Councilor at large Robert Haas Monday night urged the city council to put a one-year moratorium on granting permits for billboards.?We all love Revere and now we need to take some dramatic steps,” Haas said. “We need to review what we have in place now.”If the moratorium is passed, it would be in effect beginning May 7 and conclude on May 6, 2013.?No one is talking about getting rid of billboards in Revere. I just don?t think it improves the quality of life,” Haas added.Haas said, in some cases, billboards diminish the quality of life.?What do you really get from a billboard? It gives you an ad, period,” Haas said.Others worry that billboards decreases the property value of homes.Councilor at large Brian Arrigo stated that there have been studies done proving that more affluent towns have stricter billboard rules.He also stated that a moratorium would give them more time to regulate billboards.?We can regulate how many there are, the space in between billboards, the message, we have a lot of opportunities here,” Arrigo said.Councilor at large Anthony Zambuto said the reason that Revere has so many billboards may be due to the fact that there is more appropriate space for them as opposed to in other towns.?We have more appropriate highway spots than other towns do,” he said.The motion will be moved to sub-committee.In a related development, Ward 6 Councilor Charles Patch wants the mayor to direct the Department of Inspectional Services to notify the owners of the billboard located on Salem Street to make the necessary repairs to bring the billboard up to code.?The paper of the billboard is falling off and blowing in the wind,” Patch said. “It looks like it hasn?t been taken care of since it was put up.”Patch said if the owners don?t comply with the request they will be fined.Ward 1 Councilor and Council President Richard Penta suggested that all billboards in the city be looked at to see if they are up to code.?We need to start taking better control of these,” Patch said.Sara Brown can be reached at [email protected].