Sign code shakedown

From PlanningWiki

The sign code shakedown or billboard shakedown is a scheme used by billboard companies to strike down the entirety of municipal sign regulations, with the intent of forcing subject communities to accept billboards that would otherwise not be allowed.

The industry's litigation strategy has been described this way:

The [billboard] plaintiffs in these cases have followed the same script: negotiate leases with private property owners in a jurisdiction with outdated sign regulations; apply for multiple billboard permits, knowing that they will be denied due to noncompliance with the regulations; immediately sue the agency to invalidate the ordinance on unrelated grounds based on precedent from other federal circuits and non-sign law cases; and, finally, attempt to convince the court to order issuance of permits for billboards in otherwise prohibited or restricted locations, or negotiate a similar deal with the victim agency in exchange for a waiver of an attorney's fees claim. (Donald M. David, "Avoiding the Sign Code Shakedown: A Checklist of Basic Provisions," 27 Public Law Journal No. 1, published by the State and Local Government Section of the State Bar of California, Winter 2004.)

See also

• Billboard
• Sign regulations

External links

• American Planning Assocication: Amicus Curae briefs
• American Planning Association: The Commissioner
• New Jersey League of Municipalities: Sign Code Shakedown.
• California Public Law Journal: Avoiding the Sign Code Shakedown (.pdf).