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Billboards planned for Longway

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By Kathryn A. MacDonald

Tuesday, November 29, -0001

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The first billboard is being built on the northeast corner of Robert T. Longway Boulevard and Vernon, the second is planned for the northwest corner of Longway and Dort Highway and the third on Court Street near Consumers Power.

Construction of the first began last month and work on the other two is scheduled to begin as soon as possible, according to H & W Enterprises, the construction contractor.

Grand Trunk Western Railroad owns the billboard sites. The railroad offered to sell the land on Longway and Vernon to neighborhood property owners, says Thomas Wrigley of Grand Trunk Western, but it later withdrew the offer due to lack of interest.

The Genesee County Drain Commission is negotiating with the railroad to buy the land as part of a Gilkey Creek flood control project. According to Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone, the county had an unsigned purchase agreement with the railroad more than a year ago, but the sale was postponed when petro-chemical contamination was found on the land.

Ragnone says that the railroad cleaned up the contamination, but it then raised the price of the land.

Ragnone adds that negotiations between the county and the railroad have begun again, but that it may be years before the flood control project is begun.

Many residents and small business owners in the Longway and Vernon area say they are unhappy about the latest addition to their neighborhood.

Carol Craig of Ron Craig Heating and Plumbing, 910 N. Vernon, says that she is not necessarily upset because a billboard will stand directly in front of her business and restrict her view of the neighborhood. But she is upset, she says, because it does not look good to people coming into the city.

Many of Craig's customers are from out of town, she says, and they often tell her how nice it is to see a greenbelt in the middle of a city. She says that putting a billboard in the middle of this will detract from people's impressions of the city.

Craig says that she and her husband tried to buy a parcel of the land to expand their parking lot when the railroad offered it for sale to adjacent property owners, but they were turned down because the railroad would not sell just one lot.

Craig says she is also concerned that the community will have no control over what is advertised on the billboard. She fears that potential ads could negatively reflect on the neighborhood.

Donna Thompson of Housing Products Co. Inc., 912 Vernon, says that she is concerned that the city is allowing a billboard to be built so close to the Longway Greenbelt on which thousands of dollars have been spent as part of a beautification project.

She says that not only is the billboard an "eyesore" in her neighborhood, but that it could detrimentally affect the businesses in the area – especially if the space is leased to competing companies.

Dr. Merle F. Supernaw, 101 S.Vernon, is also upset by the billboard. He says that he has lived and worked in the neighborhood for the past 33 years and feels that the billboard is "polluting" it.

Mike Larson of the Longway Apothecary, 1818 Longway, also sees the billboard as an "eyesore" which does not belong in a residential neighborhood. He says that he is upset that a billboard is allowed in a neighborhood where the limits on local business signs are completely restrictive.

George Liljeblad, a landscape architect with Tomblinson Harburn Associates and former director of the Flint Parks and Recreation Department, sees the billboard as an "intrusion in the community." He says that a lot of money has been spent by various groups to clean up Longway Boulevard because it is a major entry route into the city and the Cultural Center and a billboard in the middle of this just does not make sense. He says that Grand Trunk Western should have made a greater effort to find a constructive use for the land.

According to Flint Zoning Administrator James Race, billboards have been banned from expressways but they are allowable on any land zoned D-3 through G, which ranges from community business areas to heavy manufacturing areas.

He says that the land on Vernon and Longway on which the first billboard is being built is not actually zoned because it is a railroad right-of-way, but since it is abutted by an E zone (heavy commercial-light manufacturing) it is treated as if it were an E zone.

City Councilman Jack Minore (7th Ward) says he has gotten several complaints about the billboard on Vernon and Longway, but that he can give no hope to those who have called. He says that even though the city of Flint has a restrictive billboard ordinance, all three of the billboards planned fall within the restrictions. Since the land is properly zoned for billboards and the proper permits have been issued, there is nothing that can be done to stop construction, he adds.

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