Exhibit from lawsuit against Ballyhoo Media showing the company’s advertising for floating billboards across City waterways. Image Credit: Mayor’s Office/ NYC Law Department Affirmative Litigation Division

The City is seeking thousands of dollars per day in fines for the ongoing and repeated violations. On March 27, 2019, the Mayor’s Office announced a lawsuit against Ballyhoo Media, Inc., a water-based billboard company, for repeatedly violating local laws by displaying “Times Square-style” billboards on Manhattan and Brooklyn waterways. The billboards began popping up last Fall and are LED signs on barges, and the City alleges in the suit that the signs create a “public nuisance,” and violate the New York City Zoning Resolution. The City seeks an injunction to prohibit Ballyhoo from operating the billboards and fines of up to $25,000 per violation, per day for Ballyhoo Media’s ongoing and repeated violations. (more…)

Illustration: Jeff Hopkins.

Sign installation in New York City triggers regulations governing location, size, illumination, and construction. The New York City Building Code and the New York City Zoning Resolution are the two main bodies of law governing signs in New York City. The Building Code regulates the construction and maintenance of signs, such as permissible construction materials, and is primarily concerned with public health and safety. The Zoning Resolution, while implicating issues of public health and safety, also encompasses aesthetic considerations. Restrictions on the size, height, surface area, and illumination of a sign are intended to promote a distinctive look in that zoning district, while striking a balance between the desires of society and the rights of property owners. For example, an illuminated sign that may be a desirable tourist attraction in Times Square, becomes a nuisance in a residential neighborhood.

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Exhibit from lawsuit against Ballyhoo Media showing the company’s advertising for floating billboards across City waterways. Image Credit: Mayor’s Office/ NYC Law Department Affirmative Litigation Division

Mayor de Blasio previously called the billboards “floating eyesores.” On October 8, 2019, the New York City Law Department announced the settlement of the City’s lawsuit against Ballyhoo Media over the company’s use of floating LED billboards in City waterways. (more…)

Billboards on Citi Field as seen from a highway. Image Credit: Google Maps

Advertising companies sought to erect outdoor billboards in the Willets Point neighborhood. Mucho Media and other property owners in Queens’ Willets Point neighborhood sought to construct large advertising billboards on their property. For safety and aesthetic reasons, the City denied or ordered the removal of billboards in the Willets Point neighborhood. These actions were pursuant to the City’s zoning law that prohibits commercial billboards within two hundred feet of an arterial highway. (more…)

Major Deegan Expressway. Image credit: Crispy1995.

Clear Channel Outdoor installed a monopole on a vacant lot to support two large billboards near the Major Deegan Expressway. In 2009, Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. installed a double-sided sign structure within view of the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. The monopole structure supported a sign for Clear Channel on one side and a sign for Beringer wines on the other. The premises was vacant other than the monopole sign structure. A building with a roof sign had existed for many years on the premises prior to the erection of the mono pole. (more…)