Jeffersonville bench ordinance draws protest

Clark County

Discussion

December 14, 2009

Advertising company owner says new regulations would put him out of business

By DAVID A. MANN The News and Tribune Mon Dec 14, 2009, 11:10 PM EST

Mike Cozzin, a Jeffersonville native, resident and owner of EZ Eye Advertising, told the Jeffersonville City Council on Monday night that he’s always been cooperative when it comes to regulation.

Since 1992, Cozzin’s product has been advertising benches found on sidewalks and corners in Jeffersonville, Clarksville and New Albany. He’s always kept insurance on them.

If a city official told them he had too many, he’d limit them. And if he was told that they were too cluttered, he’d scatter them, he said.

However, a new ordinance — which would regulate the placement, color, size and style of advertising benches — is being considered by the council. And Cozzin believes it goes too far.

“It’ll be devastating to me. I’ll be out of business,” he said.

The council’s bench-billboard ordinance — one of nine ordinances that address signs, aesthetics and clutter — would make it so benches would have to effectively match those being put out with a “city of Jeffersonville” logo.

They’d have to be the same style of metal lattice, the same shade of dark green, they can only be placed next to the city’s benches and the lettering has to be styled just as the “city of Jeffersonville” logo — with small, cutout letters.

Cozzin said none of his clients would ever want to buy such an advertisement. He asked the council to consider an ordinance that would allow his business to be grandfathered into the regulation.

However, council attorney Larry Wilder explained that allowing one person to keep current benches while forcing others to go along with new regulations would violate the U.S. Constitution’s protection of free speech. The council could either apply the regulations to all bench advertisers or none, Wilder said.

Planning Director Jim Urban vouched for Cozzin, saying that he’d always been cooperative in the placement of the benches. However, Urban said the group of ordinances fits well with design issues addressed in the city’s comprehensive plan.

Mayor Tom Galligan noted that another bench-billboard company, based out of Ohio, is dropping its benches off in numerous spots around town — following none of the restrictions that Cozzin says he’s always followed.

“If we do nothing, they keep dropping benches off,” Galligan said.

Despite the objections, the council unanimously passed the second reading of the ordinance during Monday’s meeting.

One more vote is required, then the ordinance would go into effect Jan. 1, 2011, if approved. Additional comment is expected during the Monday council meeting.

In other business

• The council unanimously approved the creation of a nonreverting fund for the nearly $224,000 in fuel savings the city has experienced this year. The fund will be used for future gasoline purchases in what the mayor called a “rainy-day fund for fuel.”