Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1920 — CITY’S BILLBOARDS MUST GO [ARTICLE]

CITY’S BILLBOARDS MUST GO

Cincinnati Commissioner Prepare* for the Removal of Signs, Under a Court Order. Orders for the removal of all billboards from the residential sections of Cincinnati are being prepared by George E. Hauser, city building commissioner, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Commissioner Hauser’s action is based on a recent decision by a judge of the Common Pleas court, that the municipal ordinance restricting billboards Is retroactive. This ordinance requires a petition containing the consent of 51 per cent of the property owners in any residential block before a permit for the erection of a billboard may be granted. The judge held that this regulation applied to billboards erected before the passage of the ordinance. Commissioner Hauser points but that under this Interpretation the residents of each block have it in their power to rid themselves of objectionable billboards by refusing to sign the consent petitions which the billboard Interests are hurriedly circulating.