Veterans Park billboard removed

Sign and structure along I-40 Down after town declines lease Renewal

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
March 13, 2023

A Lamar Advertising Co. crew removes a billboard, March 13, from the south side of Veterans Park in Black Mountain. The town declined the renew the lease for the structure last fall. Photo by Fred McCormick

A large billboard along the I-40 corridor in Black Mountain was removed, March 13, after local leaders declined to renew a lease agreement with Lamar Advertising Co. last fall.

The steel structure, which stood for decades on what is now the south side of Veterans Park, was disassembled and hauled away by the real estate investment trust and outdoor advertising company.

The sign was the subject of discussion, Nov. 14, 2022, when the town council met for its regular monthly meeting. Town Attorney Ron Sneed told elected leaders the billboard survived an effort by the town, over two decades ago, to reduce or eliminate billboards and tall signs.

“The McDonald’s sign was 100 feet tall, and there was a billboard every time you turned around,” he said, when the renewal was presented to town council. “We put a lot of time and effort into removing them where we could. With a number of them, we could not, and this particular billboard is one of them, due to its position on the federal I-40 corridor.”

Work crews disassemble a steel billboard along I-40, in Black Mountain, after town officials declined the renew the lease for the structure, which stood in what is now Veterans Park for decades. Photo by Fred McCormick

The town, which during that time promoted a policy of discouraging tall signs, according to Sneed, acquired the land that is now Veterans Park in the early 2000s,

“It’s not a huge money-maker for the town,” he said of the revenue potential of the sign.

The town council voted, 5-0, against the renewal of the lease agreement.