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Banned Electronic Billboard Posted Just Outside City Limits

Posted: 4:42 pm EST January 3, 2008Updated: 5:41 pm EST January 3, 2008

Casselberry has banned new electronic signs, but one has gone up at the edge of town and it's got other business owners fired up.

The city says it can't do anything about the one large billboard. It's just a few feet outside city lines on 436 near Anchor Road and it's fueling the debate about what kind of advertising should be allowed.

It's exactly what the city of Casselberry was trying to avoid, but the electronic billboard is just outside city limits, meaning it's outside the new moratorium. Some business owners on the same road say the new rules aren't fair.

Patti Carothers can see the sign from her parking lot.

"Well, it was different, very different, very unusual to have it," she said.

The bright new electronic billboard advertises things like political campaigns, Magic basketball and even Orlando jai-alai. But just a few hundred yards down 436, the city of Casselberry told Carothers a much smaller electric sign outside her bakery outlet store had to go.

"It showed the people we were open and it was movable and we thought we could put it outside of our building, but we weren't allowed to do that," she said.

A line in the pavement may be the only visible sign of where Casselberry's temporary ban on electronic signs begins and ends.

"Billboard companies in the past years have made it an art form to find a location for a billboard," said Mayor Bob Goff.

Goff said the large billboard, just outside city limits, flies in the face of the spirit of Casselberry's six-month moratorium on new electronic signs.

"There's quite a few of the commissioners who feel it's a distraction to the drivers and this is already a high-traffic incident area, especially on these curves," Goff said.

Even though the sign is on Seminole County land, Carothers worries the strict city rules put her and other 436 businesses on an uneven playing field.

"If this one's gonna come up, then it seems the rest of us should be able to have some type of sign along that line," she said.

The city will continue studying the affects of billboards for a few more months. Leaders will consider a more permanent ban when the moratorium expires in May.

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