Risks of Legal Non-Conforming Billboards

Here's an interesting newspaper story about the risks of owning legal non-conforming billboards.  A legal non-conforming billboard does not comply with existing zoning rules but has been grandfathered because it was constructed before the rules were put in place.  Most zoning rules forbid you from replacing or repairing non-conforming boards so you need to take them down if they get damaged.

A November 17, 2013 hurricane damaged 15 billboards in Kokomo, Indiana.  The Kokomo Board of Public Works and Safety has ruled that the billboards must be removed now that they are damaged because they are non-conforming.

How can you mitigate the risks of owning legal non-conforming boards?

1.  Diversify your billboards geographically so they won't all be damaged by a single storm.

2.  Diversify your billboards across different legal authorities so that all of your boards won't be impacted by a single township's ruling.

3.  Spend money to hurricane or tornado proof your boards so they survive a storm without damage.  One of my clients in Florida hurricane-proofed each billboard.  He changed the design of his signs so that the vinyl posters are suspended over a frame rather than on a solid steel face sign.  A hurricane will blow off the poster and blow through the sign but leave the frame of the sign undamaged.