Ad benches considered in Clarksville

Clark County

Discussion

January 18, 2012

By DAVID A. MANN David.Mann@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Wed Jan 18, 2012, 02:01 AM EST

CLARKSVILLE — Unregulated bench advertising — long an issue in Jeffersonville — is now also getting attention in Clarksville.

Mike Cozzin, owner of Jeffersonville-based E-Z Eye Advertising, came before the Clarksville Town Council on Tuesday night seeking permission to place advertising benches around town. Officials told him he’d need to get a zoning variance in order to do so, but not every company that’s placing advertising benches in Clarksville is following the same rule.

Cozzin said he’d follow the proper procedure in order to make the benches legal but noted that another company is putting benches in many of the same places as his.

“Who’s got the other benches,” said Town Councilman Paul Kraft. “He’s dumping them here, there and everywhere.”

Planning director Sharon Wilson said she would investigate the benches and find out who’s behind them and make sure they’re advised that they’re in violation of the town’s zoning ordinance.

The council took no official action on the matter.

Doing away with advertising benches has long been a goal in Jeffersonville but it has not been successful thus far. The city even passed an ordinance that required advertising benches to be of the same color and construction as the green metal city park benches. Last summer court orders were even discussed as a tool that could be used in purging the benches from public rights-of-way.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

• Moving from park benches to parks, the council was updated on the progress of the Ohio River Greenway. The project, which has been under way since 1993, seeks to connect waterfronts in Jeffersonville, Clarksville and New Albany with a linear park, with a pedestrian and bicycle path.

Project coordinator Shauna Graf told members of the council that more than half of the 7.5 mile stretch was either finished or under construction. Key segments addressed in the last year include the portion of the trail that goes through Ashland Park in Clarksville and the Big Four Bridge project in Jeffersonville.

This spring she said work would commence on a portion of the project between 18th Street and Silver Creek in New Albany. In 2013, the focus will turn to completing the segment between the creek and the Clark cabin site in Clarksville.

Putting up wayfinding signage and establishing a maintenance fund will be other concerns this year, Graf said.

So when will it be finished?

“This is one of the hardest questions to answer,” she said. “It depends on funding.”

It’s a federally funded project so it relies on funding from congress. In the last few years its primary funding source has been funds allocated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

• The town adopted a change to its comprehensive plan that included new revamping at the former Colgate-Palmolive Co. site. The plans call for the former factory, which closed in 2007, to be redeveloped into a mixed use development. Potential uses included retail space and residential areas.