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The Metro Council is set to consider a proposed cooperative endeavor agreement between the city-parish and Lamar Advertising at its meeting Wednesday. If approved, the agreement would see Lamar tackle urban blight in Baton Rouge by removing abandoned signage at no cost to the city-parish.
Trey Roberts, vice president and general manager of Lamar Baton Rouge, tells Daily Report that his company will start removing signs at a pace of about one per month once the agreement gets the green light.
“We’re in the business of promoting people’s businesses, and we feel like these blighted signs are kind of a stain on the city that shows that maybe we’re not open for business,” Roberts says.
Lamar approached the city-parish with the plan in an effort to support local blight reduction initiatives. On the campaign trail, Mayor Sid Edwards often cited blight reduction as one of his top priorities.
“Cleaning up the city is something that could happen rather quickly where people could actually see progress being made,” Edwards told Daily Report when he was running for office. “When I’m coaching, I always say there’s got to be some visual proof, something for people to see.”
Under the proposed agreement, the city-parish would work with Lamar to determine which signs qualify for removal. Lamar would then be responsible for removing the signs, a process that would include dismantling sign structures and cleaning up any related debris. Lamar would fund the entire removal process, including equipment, labor, materials and transportation, at no financial burden to taxpayers.
Either party would be able to terminate the agreement with 30 days’ written notice.
Abandoned signage has long contributed to blight in Baton Rouge’s commercial corridors. Business Report founder and former publisher Rolfe McCollister brought attention to the issue in a March 2023 opinion column, and later that year, the Metro Council approved a measure aimed at making it easier to remove such signage.
