Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.
Community activists hounding Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera for his involvement in a billboard ordinance thought his colleagues might compromise if he chose not to vote Wednesday.
Their theory proved wrong. Herrera opted to abstain and commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance that will allow billboards along the Las Vegas Beltway. Residents fought the ordinance for a year.
"We went through this entire exercise for no reason," Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, the most vocal opponent against Herrera and the ordinance, said after Wednesday's zoning board meeting.
The controversial measure had passed but was called back by the commission after concerns that it was not worded properly on the agenda. Herrera provided the swing vote on the ordinance in December when it originally passed and came under fire for it. He had previously abstained from voting because his wife works with the billboard industry.
Mayo-DeRiso filed a complaint with the Nevada Ethics Commission last month after Herrera's vote. Although Herrera defends his decision to take part in December's vote, he bowed out Wednesday. Herrera said his decision was due to an "overabundance of caution" and not because his wife does permitting work for billboard companies.
"Because of an increasing political environment in which people choose to use the ethics review board to discredit elected officials or air disagreements with elected officials, I think it's prudent not to participate," Herrera said.
Unlike December, Herrera's vote wouldn't have affected the outcome Wednesday. Commissioners worked through 24 proposed amendments to the ordinance that governs the placement of billboards along city streets and major thoroughfares.
Mayo-DeRiso and Paradise Town Board chairwoman Mary Jane Harvey battled hardest for two changes -- the distance between signs and the size of an "overlay district" where billboards are allowed.
Residents requested a distance requirement of at least 1,000 feet between billboards along the Las Vegas Beltway, but commissioners set the distance at 500 feet. On city streets within the overlay district, billboard must be 750 feet apart.
Critics of the ordinance also asked that no billboards be permitted along the beltway west of Decatur Boulevard and east of Warm Springs Road. The board agreed to allow signs west to Durango Drive and east to Pecos Road.
The beltway became the center of debate because of the lack of development along the highway gives way to views of mountain ranges.
Billboard representatives argued that the ordinance was stringent because all outdoor signs must receive board approval before they're built.
The signs must be 300 feet away from neighborhoods. If land is zoned rural neighborhood preserve, applications for signs within 1,500 feet will be rejected. However, if the land is undeveloped and the zoning is only designated in county land use guides, applications can be considered.
Commissioners also reinstated a $500 permit fee for each sign.
Although opponents of the initial ordinance did not get the distance between signs they hoped for, they said distance requirements in the final ordinance draft are more stringent than in the law first introduced.
Commissioner Myrna Williams, a critic of the first drafts of the ordinance, accepted the final amendments.
"An overwhelming number of signs are in my district and this ordinance provides an opportunity to reduce the number of signs," Williams said. "It's important we get this under control. Is this exactly how I would want to have it? No."
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