42 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE BILLBOARD CRUSADE 
Chicago’s New Ordinance 
The city council of Chicago in 
January passed a new billboard ordi- 
nance the chief features of which 
are as follows: 
Billboards of greater height than two feet 
on the roofs of buildings shall be faced 
with iron and anchored to the approval of 
the building commissioner. The supports 
may be of wood. 
Billboards on roofs shall not exceed ten 
feet in height nor twenty-four feet in length 
for every twenty-five feet of frontage. A 
door shall be cut in the center of the board 
for fire escapes. 
Billboards shall not be anchored upon 
the roof of any building more than two 
stories in height or having anything but a 
flat roof. The plans must be submitted 
to the building commissioner. 
Billboards erected otherwise than on 
buildings within the fire limits shall not 
exceed twelve feet in height and shall be 
constructed of some incombustible material, 
except that the stringers may be of wood. 
No billboard other than those on the 
roofs of buildings shall be constructed at a 
greater height than seventeen feet from the 
level of the street, and the base of the 
billboard shall be at least five feet above 
level of street. 
Billboards not exceeding twelve square 
feet in area may be built of wood or other 
material and shall be exempt from the pro- 
visions of this article. Signs erected flat 
against the face of a building also shall be 
exempt. 
Billboards erected outside of the fire lim- 
its have a different set of regulations. They 
are not allowed, however, to be built higher 
than seventeen feet, and there is a provi- 
sion for the same clear space of five feet 
underneath. 
Other provisions of the ordinance are : 
No billboard shall be erected without a 
permit from the building commissioner and 
upon the payment of a fee of $2 for each 
board. 
Billboards now existing shall be altered 
to comply with the ordinance by Oct. 1, 
1907, or they will be torn down by the 
building commissioner. 
The owner’s name shall be placed on top 
of boards, and the building commissioner 
shall notify the owners of violations of the 
ordinance, placing a time for the altera- 
tion. If alteration is not made in speci- 
fied time board shall be torn down. The 
building commissioner is empowered to 
take any other precautions for safety he 
sees fit, and charge the same to the owner 
of the board. 
Los Angeles Regulates Billboards 
A billboard ordinance recently 
passed and now in force in Los 
Angeles, Cal., places an annual tax 
of one cent a square foot on these 
boards and makes it unlawful to 
erect any billboard larger than eight 
by ten feet without first obtaining a 
permit from the police commission. 
The commission may not issue a per- 
mit for a sign more than ten feet in 
height. Not more than three sign 
boards under the minimum size may 
be erected on any lot or tract with- 
out a permit from the commission. 
Application for billboard permits 
must be made in writing to the board 
and must give all particulars. If the 
permit shall be granted it must be 
done at a public hearing, not less 
than fifteen days after the filing of 
the application. The person filing 
the application is required to give 
written notice ten days in advance 
of the hearing to all property own- 
ers on both sides of the block and 
must furnish proof of service of the 
notice before the board can take 
cognizance of the application. Each 
sign board must have a separate per- 
mit. It shall be unlawful for any 
person to erect any billboard more 
than ten feet above the ground. No 
billboard shall be erected within 
twenty feet of the property line of 
any street. The penalty for viola- 
tion of the ordinance is a fine of 
$200, imprisonment for 100 days, or 
both. 
Bills Before Legislatures 
A bill for the licensing of bill- 
boards has been introduced into the 
Massachusett’s Legislature. The bill 
provides that the board of aldermen 
of a city or the selectmen of a town 
within which any billboard is to be 
erected shall first receive an applica- 
tion for a license, and that the ap- 
plication shall describe the desired 
location and give the specifications 
of the proposed board. A license 
fee, the amount of which has not 
been fixed, is to be charged for the 
purpose of covering the costs of in- 
spection, etc. The aim of the bill 
is to put into the hands of some 
public official the responsibility of 
locating signs so that they may not 
be put by churches, squares, parks 
and such places where the people 
have developed a situation for their 
own pleasure and not for the private 
profit of those who would interfere 
with that pleasure. A general bill to 
tax advertising signs has recently 
been introduced in the New York 
Legislature, and has much to com- 
mend it. It would levy a yearly tax 
of 12 cents for each square foot of 
space on fences, walls, barns, houses, 
sheds, rocks, billboards or other ob- 
jects used for advertising purposes 
during more than five days in the 
year. The objects of this bill are to 
provide additional revenue for the 
state, cities and towns; to preserve 
the beauty of streets, highways and 
landscapes; and to create among ad- 
vertisers a tendency to attract atten- 
tion by the artistic qualities rather 
than by the mere size of their signs. 
Exemptions to the general provisions 
of the bill are made for signs with an 
area of less than 32 square feet, for 
those composed entirely of lights, 
and for signs on hotels, apartment 
houses and on buildings used for 
trade and manufacture when the ad- 
vertising matter consists of nothing 
more than a name and a trademark. 
It has been roughly estimated that 
this bill would bring New York an 
annual revenue of $800,000, to be di- 
vided between the state and local 
governments. 
A bill now before the Legislature 
of Pennsylvania authorizes cities, 
boroughs and townships of the first 
class to classify outdoor advertising 
according to situation, height, size 
and form and to levy a license tax 
thereon per square foot of the space 
occupied by the various classes. The 
tax per square foot will, so far as it 
has any regulative effect, tend to 
keep the size of the structures within 
bounds. Under this provision com- 
munities whose taste is opposed to 
the boardings can put a prohibitory 
tax on them; those which tolerate 
them can put a tax on them which 
will only yield a revenue; and those 
whose popular taste enjoys the pic- 
torial productions can leave them 
free and untaxed. One exception 
exists to this full local option. The 
bill prohibits the local governments 
from allowing such outdoor advertis- 
ing on the lands, highways, bridges 
or property of the townships, bor- 
oughs or cities. That provision is a 
good one. 
John G. Lennon, of Minneapolis, 
has introduced into the Minnesota 
Legislature a bill to do away with 
billboards and all public posters. Un- 
der the bill the posting or display of 
any sign, notice, picture, advertise- 
ment or announcement, on any sign- 
board, billboard, screen, fence, wall, 
post, tree or outside any building or 
public place, except notices or adver- 
tisements of sales or business upon 
the premises where the bills are 
posted or displayed, and official and 
public notices required by law, is de- 
clared a public nuisance and prohib- 
ited. Any person who posts or dis- 
plays, who employs or causes another 
to post or display, or who assists in 
posting or displaying any of the signs 
or bills prohibited in the act is made 
guilty of a misdemeanor and the fine 
may be anything up to $100 or a jail 
sentence of not more than three 
months. 
