Oops! Senoia gets its first billboard; scramble ensues

A city oversight opened the door for a billboard company to soon erect the first billboard in the Senoia city limits.

City Attorney Drew Whalen explained Monday night the city “didn’t have a good leg to stand on” in its efforts to keep Railroad Outdoor from placing a billboard on Ga. Highway 16 near the Cumberland subdivision.

The city had drafted language to make sure no billboards would be allowed in the city in late 2016, but the language never got put into the sign ordinance, Whalen explained.

To further prevent more billboards from dotting the city’s landscape, the city enacted a six-month moratorium on signs, until language forbidding billboards can be added into the city’s ordinances.

The only signs allowed during the moratorium would be ground signs that don’t exceed 10 feet in height. No signs will be allowed to be erected in the public rights of way during the next six months.