There’s a new electronic billboard on Patton Avenue. If you’re heading west and just crossing over the Smoky Park Bridge, the billboard will be on your right past Regent Park Boulevard and right next to Acton Chiropractic. The billboard faces traffic heading east on Patton Avenue into Asheville.
These new electronic billboards are ugly and distracting. Are they expressly allowed under Asheville’s sign ordinance, or does the billboard owner have to have special permission to install them? Will we be seeing more of these around town? The only other one I know of right now is down on Airport Road. Are there others?
Can Asheville City Council stop more of these horrifying billboards from going up? Will it?
I’ll post a photo soon.
17 Comments
There is one on Sweeten Creek heading south just past UPS. I don’t mind them but I can never read what one ad says before it changes to the next one.
Who cares!!!!!
I have to agree with the majority sentiment here. Although they can be a bit garish from time to time (more the fault of the ad designer and not the billboard company) I vastly prefer the colorful digital billboards than seeing dilapidated and peeling eyesores as I drive.
But, here’s a suggestion worthy of clambering. Instead of the removal, how-about insisting on a bit of community information between the ads?
There’s another one on 70, on the way to Swannanoa past Oteen. Right near two fine East Asheville institutions, Cocula and Fun Wheels.
If somebody wants to protest signage, how about convening a coven of witches to hold hands around the 75 to 150 signs directing the roundabout between Tripps and the Courthouse? That signage makes it look like we’re too stupid to know how to enter, traverse and exit a roundabout without running over a Trustfarian.
IMO the reason no one is complaining about the signage in Arden is because Arden is already an architectural wasteland of fake pink stucco and cheap false cupolas reminiscent of 1980s suburban Miami. Between the ticky-tacky shopping centers, rabbit warrens of ugly condominiums, and banks with collonaded facades that look like they could be destroyed by a few well tossed rocks, there really isn’t much left to ruin in Arden. I do hope no one envisions Arden’s aesthetic as a model for Asheville’s future.
I drive by there every morning and noticed it yesterday, but didn’t even look this morning. I’m ok with it, as it is better than the old billboards that peel and look nasty anyways. Everyone gets there panties in a bunch over billboards.
They are all over South Asheville. A couple on Hendersonville Road, and Sweeten Creek too. They are no uglier than the billboards already up all over town. Personally, I think it’s better to have an electronic, bright, colorful one than a dilapidated one advertising someone that went out of business years ago.
If "they" can tell a person what to do with a sign inside of a building (the Arcade, or that Chiropractor), then I feel certain that "they" can "do something" about this atrocity on Patton (it is in the City limits?) ….. look at what went on at Staples …… that was easy!
There’s one on Hendersonville Road near the Crapplebee’s as well as on I-26 near Mountain Home. I believe they are easier on the eyes as well as better taken care of…
There is another one on Hwy 70 near exit 55
There’s another one in Enka. Not far before you get to the Sonic Drive-In (if you’re heading toward Haywood County, that is), on the right. I don’t have a problem with it. No different than any other billboard, really, and I haven’t found it distracting at all. Just don’t look at it. It’s not that hard.
Ash: About a year ago I mentioned to you the strangely empty billboards in Oteen, near Exit 55 on Tunnel Road. There were so many empty ones it was almost eerie (and exciting!). I knew it had to be something other than a lack of advertising….but what?
Here’s what: They installed the electronic ones. It was shocking at first to see those obnoxiously bright boards. I can’t say that I’ve grown to accept them but the shock has worn off. I still don’t like them!
SUPPOSEDLY the e-boards were approved because you can have, for example, 10 different messages on one board instead of 10 boards. (But I can’t say I’ve seen fewer boards…)
–kp
IIRC, a few years ago City Council agreed to allow a few of these signs in exchange for a larger number of traditional boards coming down.
Whether or not those boards actually did come down is something I’d like to know.
There’s another one on Long Shoals Road. It’s near where the old ABC store used to be and is on the left as you approach Hendersonville Road.
I agree – I would say that maybe the Chiropractor gets a little boot to have it at his location? but I am not sure.
Oh Noes!!! Tell the No crowd about it, they will have a protest and maybe some of the canidates that are running keep Asheville from becoming the city that it can. Can’t have big ol signs on the road, you know.
I welcome the new signs, Some are better then the old fashioned ones, easier on the eyes, easier to read. I think what the problem is this is near precious downtown where nothing different is allowed. No one said a peep about the sign in Arden, you know why, Its not dear bland ol Down town . . .