A bid to allow digital billboards in parts of San Antonio is a step closer to approval.
A council committee approved a plan Thursday for a digital signage program that will go before the full council in the coming months.
If it passes, San Antonio could soon have the kind of digital advertising screens seen in cities like Denver, Atlanta and West Hollywood.
The two-year pilot project would allow off-premise advertising and require changes to the City’s sign code, which regulates such advertising. The ads would have to meet certain criteria for the content and the billboard’s time would be shared with the city for public messaging and digital art.
A percentage of each billboard’s revenue would go to the city, which could use the funds to support arts programs.
The committee’s vote came after a dozen people, including representatives of the Conservation Society of San Antonio, appeared before the committee opposing the project, first proposed in 2022.
“You can try to put lipstick on the pig,” said Patti Zaiontz, a former president of the Conservation Society of San Antonio. “But these are billboards. They are digital billboards. They are flashy. They are not going to promote the history and culture of San Antonio.”
Kathleen Trenchard called the project a Trojan horse. “Would the anticipated revenues from the proposed Digital Media Program justify selling our eyeballs and those of our visitors?” she asked. “After seeing what the program did to downtown Denver, I think not. We must do better. Si se puede.”
Centro San Antonio President and CEO Trish DeBerry said her organization sees the program as positive for San Antonio.
“We believe it can be done tastefully, pragmatically, in a way that enhances downtown and the current beauty that we have in downtown,” she said.
Mike Shannon, director of the city’s Development Services Department, which spearheaded the project, proposed some options and requirements for the program based on feedback from previous briefings and a series of stakeholder meetings.
Shannon also outlined some of the requirements that would limit the number and size of the billboards and their placement in the city.
Billboards could not be installed in places where they can be viewed from the River Walk, and billboards couldn’t go up on any building that is designated historic.
All signage in historic districts would require review by the Historic and Design Review Commission and the city’s Office of Historic Preservation, Shannon said.
The three options he pitched for how the program would work included varying degrees of revenue sharing, revenue splits and the amount of time the city would be able to use it for public messages and to showcase the work of local artists.
District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran said she would support Option A for its greater support of the arts, “that we know is going to face some issues and some struggles as we cannot look federally for programs to come down.”
Ten neighborhoods were identified for the pilot program, including areas near Port San Antonio, Toyota Field and the Blue Star Arts District.
But District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia and others members of the Council’s Planning and Community Development Committee asked for the King William neighborhood, where Blue Star is situated, to be avoided.
Members also asked for more discussion about including the Pearl Brewery District.
District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo suggested that the program’s time sharing mirror what is done with the city’s information kiosks. But she also expressed concern over the type of content that will be allowed.
“My expectation is that there’s not advertisements in terms of vaping,” Castillo said.
District 9 Councilman John Courage supported the idea of the billboards lighting up parts of the city and using the revenue to support the arts community, perhaps even Centro, he said.
Though District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez said he thinks some cities have created unsightly conditions with digital billboards, he supports the proposal and believes San Antonio is implementing them “artfully and thoughtfully.”
“My concern is that it’ll be perceived … that what we’re approving today is digital billboards everywhere, and that what we all want is for San Antonio to look like downtown Tokyo or Times Square [and] the Las Vegas Strip,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody in this room who wants that.”
