Billboards on railroad property coming down

In a process that started as part of an annexation request to the city, local reporters from Historic City News learned that highway billboards along US-1 between the north city gates and the county courthouse are coming down for good.

According to Planning and Building Director Mark Knight in an interview this morning, the railroad approached the city; asking to annex commercial lots owned by Flagler Development along the north US-1 corridor. As part of the negotiation that was approved in 2006, the railroad had until February of this year to start removing the billboards.

Knight explained that about 11 sign faces in total will be removed as they continue the work, however, in some cases; there is more than one sign face at a location. “The signs include single-faced, 4 post signs, double-faced signs, double-structure wedges and monopole signs,” Knight said.

As the Florida East Coast railroad reorganized, it transferred acres upon acres of land to Flagler Development Company; previous railway easements, much of which has commercial zoning today and is buildable.

Knight told Historic City News that Flagler will probably build on or make the north city property available for development — previously a big-box retailer expressed interest in the site.

This is going on elsewhere in the city, according to Knight. Along SR-16 billboards are coming down on other railroad property under a similar agreement that was struck that allowed development of residential condominiums.

City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline was at the scene on US-1 north as work was being done to remove another billboard. Sikes-Kline, who supports the removal of the billboards, said “keep in mind that this is part of an agreement negotiated prior to me being on the Commission.”

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, many of the billboards and billboard sites began appearing along US-1 when the highway was the main north-south corridor for travel. The billboards quickly lost favor and effectiveness when Interstate 95 was cut through at the US-1 intersection near the Avenues Mall. Within a year businesses along US-1, also known as Phillips Highway and Ponce de Leon Boulevard, began to suffer; gas stations and restaurants were among the first beginning to disappear.

By the 1980’s and 1990’s, the billboards along US-1 were much less congested; aided in part by regulations that restricted the total replacement or reconstruction of highway billboards if they were ever knocked down by storms or taken down by the owners. People were already beginning to feel that the billboards were more of an eyesore than a benefit that would attract tourists to the city.

Photo credit: © 2010 Historic City News contributed photograph by Nancy Sikes-Kline