Castle Rock – The prairie rolls up against the foothills along Interstate 25 in Castle Rock, framing a landscape fit for a Colorado postcard.
A proposed town ordinance would ensure the view remains picture-perfect, free of tall billboards pitching gas, food and hotels.
The Castle Rock Town Council will vote later this month whether to ban future freeway signs taller than 20 feet.
“This is ultimately a good thing,” said Town Councilman Ryan Reilly.
Town leaders are concerned about the proliferation of signage at the Founders Parkway-Wolfensberger Road exit, the town’s northern gateway.
Local residents uneasy about the intrusion on the lush views applaud the move, as does Scenic Colorado, which urges protection of the state’s natural landscape.
“A business can own a sign and the ground it sits on, but it doesn’t own the view,” said Teresa Gooden of Deckers, waiting to buy lunch near I-25 and Wolfensberger Road.
Manny Lopez of Denver disagreed. “How am I going to know where to pull over to get what I want to eat without signs?”
At a workshop last month, business owners said the new rules were overreaching. The town grandfathered in about a dozen 50-foot signs currently placed that advertise gas stations, restaurants and hotels.
In unincorporated Douglas County, signs are limited to 15 feet tall, but businesses can get a variance.
Monument, south of Castle Rock, limits signs to 35 feet tall and 150 square feet of display. In Boulder, the limit is 25 feet tall and 100 square feet of signage.
Colorado’s state and federal highways are dotted with about 2,300 signs, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The number declines by about 100 a year as signs age and communities restrict them, according to Scenic Colorado.
“We absolutely, positively support these kinds of steps taken by local governments to minimize visual blight,” said Miles Davis, the organization’s president pro tem.
Myron Laible, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, said Castle Rock should see the big picture.
“When you start banning an industry, banning business development and banning a business use, there are all sorts of concerns about First Amendment and Fifth Amendment complications,” he said, referring to free speech and protection from government seizing property.
Freeway-side businesses depend on big signs, and banning them only limits economic development, Laible said. A 2002 Villanova University poll indicated that 85 percent of travelers found billboards useful.
The association tracks 271 government jurisdictions across the country, and only 6 percent ban billboards, Laible said.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
