Civic leaders look to renew coalition on billboard issues

Joe Chaisson: Savin Hill activist has long history of opposing billboard proliferation along the expressway. Photo by Bill ForryOver the next month, a handful of Dorchesters civic associations will take up the issue of billboards in their neighborhoods. Should they vote to disavow them or should they begin conversations to allow some to be erected?

The city has recently been hit with a flurry of new applications for billboards and last Wednesday night there was a summit meeting at the Savin Hill Apartments of the heads of the Columbia-Savin Hill, Neponset, Clam Point, and Port Norfolk civic associations where they assessed the proposals in an effort to decide whether or not to create a unified front against any new boards.

When we heard about this electronic billboard, it just set off all kinds of alarms, said Jeanne Doherty of the Columbia Savin Hill group, referring to a recent application to install one on the NSTAR land on Dewar Street in Savin Hill, a prime location along the southeast expressway. The proposal comes with stringent zoning restrictions. Columbia-Savin Hill will vote on the application at Januarys meeting.

Another concern is the style of the billboards static or electronic? as companies race to stake claims to erect highly lucrative digital boards along the interstate.

City Councillor Frank Baker indicated he would follow the lead of the civic associations, but added that he had no interest in digital boards: I asked the mayors office to defer any applications until the community gets together, a position endorsed by state Rep. Dan Hunt, who was at the meeting, and by a representative from state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forrys office.

Baker said he was interested in working out an agreement that could potentially bring one new board into a prime location in exchange for 15 or 20 to be taken off main local thoroughfares like Dorchester Avenue or near the Neponset River. With all the development on Dot Ave., this would go a long way to clean it up, he said.

Joe Chiasson of Columbia Savin Hill began the meeting with a history of Dorchesters reluctance to allow the billboards along the Southeast Expressway and the neighborhoods main drags. As a result of his civic work in the 80s, companies looking to put up billboards had to fight to get okays from civic associations before going before the Zoning Board of Appeals. Chiasson told the group that folks in City Hall would call it Joes Law.

He noted that the late Mayor Tom Menino was always anti-billboard. The only new board, Chiasson said, was the one behind the school depository on NSTAR land. But every time that board has come up before Savin Hill civic, the civic groups have come together to vote no. The land just sits there and I hope it stays that way.

In light of the flurry of new applications for billboards under a new administration, Chiasson said, the time was right to bring the civics together just like old times.

The respective civic associations will decide at their January meetings if they want to reject all billboard applications, or take things on a case-by-case basis.

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Civic leaders look to renew coalition on billboard issues