City of Miami commissioners voted 3-2 April 25 to ban future construction of oversized, digital billboards in the municipality. But to be clear, residents will still stumble upon these very structures during their downtown walks or drives.
The vote puts the city one step closer to rescinding an ordinance passed in 2023 that allows 100-foot LED billboards spanning 1,800 square feet, which allowed the city to circumvent state-mandated size limits, but it also ends a monthslong debate at which the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and the Adrienne Arsht Center of the Performing Arts have been center stage.
The two cultural institutions had already received a permit or began the permitting process for signage under the repealed ordinance when District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo introduced the new legislation earlier this year, as reported by the Biscayne Times. As a result, both venues will be able to proceed with the installations.
(Samantha Morell for Biscayne Times)
Construction of PAMM’s LED billboard, designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, began in November 2023.
“The city could of course order the signs be taken down, but it would not be without consequences,” said newly appointed city attorney George Wysong.
Lobbyists representing Orange Barrel Media, a digital sign company partnering with both cultural venues, had threatened to sue the city had it chosen to revoke PAMM’s permit for an already-constructed billboard facing Interstate 395.
“We want to avoid liability in the city, and were we to take vested permits and deny them or change them, we would be accruing large amounts of liability for the city of Miami,” said Pardo.
In the end, however, Pardo himself was in the minority voting against the legislation due to his opposition against a last-minute amendment proffered by Commission Chair Christine King.
That amendment’s language specifically allows the signage at PAMM and the Arsht to move forward under the conditions that the signs’ brightness is limited and that they only operate from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. – or until 12 a.m. for a special event – among other requirements.
Commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Angel Gabela joined King in supporting the amendment, while Commissioner Manolo Reyes joined Pardo in voting it down. Because the amendment effectively changes the legislation, it will have to come back for another second-reading vote at the commission’s next meeting.
The change comes as a blow to residents, including the Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, who stood firmly against the large LED billboards. The topic has dominated the public comment period at recent meetings, during which residents have cited light pollution and dangerous driver distractions as reasons to oppose.
Pardo, following ample resident feedback and polls, estimated that more than 80% of residents in the greater downtown area were completely against the signage.
A recent incident of PAMM’s billboard mistakenly left shining a bright light for approximately 1 hour after sunset sent residents who saw it into yet another fury, less than a week before the April vote. M. Therese Vento, general counsel for PAMM, said an error caused the billboard to emit a light six times brighter than it would normally.
“We ended up having a human error involved that prevented the system from automatically turning the brightness down,” said David Kile, director of systems at SNA Displays, the manufacturer of PAMM’s LED display. “Both content and brightness would have been adjusted appropriately for the time of day under normal operating conditions.”
Kile added that the company has since installed cameras and photo sensors to measure brightness, as well as automated dimming software to keep the billboard’s operation within city standards.