Court Opinion

ID: 9633449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:48:02.760585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:35.811405
License: Public Domain

CAMERON, Justice,
dissenting:
I regret that I must dissent. I do so for three reasons. First, I do not believe that the government may require the removal of a legal (albeit preexisting and non-conforming) billboard as a condition for a zoning change or issuance of a building permit. To require the landowner to give up what he is legally permitted to have in order to obtain what he may already be entitled to, is bureaucratic extortion, if not judicial extortion.
Second, I object to the sweeping statement “[t]hat billboards pose a significant threat to public safety and the general welfare cannot be doubted.” On the con*311trary, I have my doubts. Admittedly, much depends on the time and place. An unusually animated billboard may be distracting to a driver, but no more than children, members of the opposite sex or cattle in a pasture. I find nothing in the evidence below to support the statement that billboards pose a significant threat to safety or the general welfare.
Finally, I believe “existing property” as used in the UEMA refers to the billboard itself as opposed to the land surrounding it, as the majority maintains. Therefore, because appellants have not changed the use of the existing property, they are still entitled to protection under UEMA § 9-462.02