A RECENT MIX-UP by Ridgeland city officials means that the future of billboards in the city is still up in the air - at least until Tuesday.

At its meeting last week, the mayor and board of aldermen rescheduled a public hearing from February 3 to February 17 to discuss an amendment to the city’s sign ordinance that would phase out the signs over the next 10 to 12 years.

Mayor Gene McGee said the hearing needed to be rescheduled to ensure that residents have been given proper notice of the meeting. Mississippi state law requires cities to advertise public hearings 15 days before the event.

“It wasn’t sent to the newspaper on time,” he said, in a slightly humorous tone. “We discovered it and rescheduled the hearing so residents would have proper notice.” Residents will have a chance to voice their concerns about billboards at the meeting, which is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Ridgeland City Hall on U.S. 51.

If passed, the amendment would fall under Section XI of the sign ordinance and affect all billboards not regulated by state code - essentially, all the ones in the city limits not lining state highways, federal highways and interstates.

ACCORDING to a draft copy of the ordinance, all non-conforming billboards will have to be taken down in a little more than a decade.

Signs with an original construction cost of less than $250,000 have to come down in 10 years, and billboards with an original construction cost of $250,000 or more have to be removed in 12 years.

Billboards are divided into two classes: class one, which includes signs that are subject to state code; and class two, which are not subject to state law. Under the ordinance, all signs that were legally in existence prior to the adoption of the ordinance will be declared “non-conforming.”

Class one billboards may continue to remain in the city, but owners will be prohibited from changing or replacing the billboard, altering it structurally to extend its useful life, expanding it, relocating it, or re-establishing it after more than 50 percent of its value is damaged or destroyed.

Under the new ordinance, billboard owners would also be prohibited from modifying their signs in any way “that would increase the degree of non-conformity.”

Approximately 15 to 20 billboards, some of which are located along Lake Harbour Drive, County Line Road, Old Canton Road and Rice Road, would be affected. Signs located along state and federal highways, like I-55 and Mississippi 463, wouldn’t fall under the ordinance.

ALAN HART, the city’s director of community development, said the amendment is one of several changes that are planned for the city’s sign ordinance. “We are making improvements to a number of our aesthetic controls,” he told the Sun. “This was an opportunity for us to ensure that ground signs have features that are consistent with the buildings they belong to.

“Signs are often an afterthought,” he said in a previous interview. “This is a way to make developers think about signs during the construction phase.” The code would mostly affect commercial, not residential developments.