Penn Hills Council relaxes billboard rules

Penn Hills Council passed an ordinance Oct. 21 to loosen billboard rules in industrial districts.

The new regulations allow for larger and higher billboards in these areas, while also expressly permitting signs with electronically changing messages. Billboards remain banned in residential, conservation, business and mixed-use districts — an overwhelming majority of the municipality.

According to planning director Chris Blackwell, all this brings Penn Hills in line with regulations from PennDOT, which gets final say over whether a billboard is allowed near state and interstate highways following local approval.

“I looked at our ordinance and then I looked at PennDOT. And if they’re the ones that issue the permits, let’s make it match those requirements,” he said.

He said the previous regulations made billboards all but impossible to install without a variance, possibly exposing the municipality to legal challenges, since the state generally forbids exclusionary zoning.

There are about 50 billboards in town, and all but one is a nonconforming use, per Blackwell.

Billboards have received renewed attention locally after the Churchill Zoning Hearing Board in December green-lighted a double-sided electronic billboard on a small parcel near the Churchill-Penn Hills-Wilkins boundary.

Despite strident opposition from Penn Hills officials and residents, as well as some stakeholders from Wilkins, the sign along Rodi Road got unanimous approval. That decision was appealed in January by Wilkins in the Allegheny County Court of Commons Pleas, where proceedings are ongoing.