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Newberry Springs Eyesore Billboards
May Be Ordered Removed By Court
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February 9, 2013
The sun may be setting on three eyesores along the southside of Interstate-15.
Photograph of the three double-faced billboards was taken in April 2011.
Judicial Relief On Billboard Blight Appears Possible
A call for the removal of three mammoth billboard structures
that scar the Interstate-15 desert landscape in Newberry Springs, CA has been called for
in legal papers recently filed with the Superior Court of California.
The billboards erected by
General Outdoor Advertising
(San Diego Outdoor Advertising) in 2011 have been fiercely promoted by Spike Lynch of
Newberry Springs whose brother, Tim Lynch, owns and operates the billboard business.
The three metal structures on Interstate-15 are double faced allowing
three surfaces to be viewed while traveling in either direction. The three structures are
counted as six billboards.
Sandra Brittian, president of the Newberry Springs Chamber of Commerce,
has also been a leading advocate of billboards. She used her earlier position as president
of the Newberry CSD board to promote billboards being placed in Newberry Springs despite the
conflict of owning a parcel alongside Interstate-40 that was earlier being considered
as a billboard site that would have generated personal income for her. It appears that her
site had been selected in payoff for her political support.
The General Outdoor Advertising billboards that have been placed in
Newberry Springs adjacent Interestate-15 were erected despite being part of a legal firefight
over their legality that is now into its sixth year before the state court.
It is alleged that due to improper influences by General Outdoor
Advertising and certain county officials, county departments did not follow regulations and
issued billboard construction permits that violated federal and state law.
The preponderance of evidence that has been presented to the
Superior Court appears to sustantiate the illegality of the permits.
In comparing the similarity of the issuance of the permits for
the six established billboards on Interstate-15 to an appellate matter recently decided in
2012 in Los Angeles
(Summit Media v. City of Los Angeles),
General Outdoor Advertising might be ordered barred from further benefiting from the
billboards. The billboards could be ordered removed by the court.
The billboards have been financially less than fully successful in
having had a vacancy factor.
This year, the Superior Court is expected to give a final ruling on
the legality of the county issued permits. On March 22, 2013, the matter will once again
be before the court. When a ruling is eventually given, it can be appealed by any
of the involved parties.
Spike Lynch, President N.S.H.R.P.O.A.
Wants a Silver Valley billboard empire.
The original plan by General Outdoor Advertising to plant
as many as thirty-two eyesore billboards along Interstate-40 in the Barstow suburbs of Daggett
and Newberry Springs, and along Interstate-15 in Yermo, appears to be fading like a
desert mirage.
Spike Lynch and General Outdoor Advertising had acquired Newberry
community and political support to allegedly pressure the county to circumvent billboard
regulations by targeting regulatory loop-hole exceptions through phony spot zoning and other
weasel maneuvers that are reportedly improper under billboard law.
There is good reason why other billboard companies have not
attempted to erect billboards in Newberry Springs... a long established federally
promoted ban against them; agreed to by the State of California after accepting tens of
millions of dollars for the ban.
The six billboards on Interstate-15 exposes the state to the potential
penalty of the federal government withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in
transportation funds. Should that happen, the state may close the tap of transportation
funds directed to the County of San Bernardino.
The grandiose promises by crafty Spike Lynch to
share
his brother's billboard income with the community, and the endorsements of billboards by Lynch's
fledgeling Newberry Springs-Harvard Real Property Owners Association, and other advocates like
Sandra Brittian, appear to have seriously misled and betrayed many Newberrians to support the
billboards.
The income sharing fiasco has led to the establishment of Newberry's
Repository of Shame
of alleged scammed victims; and, disappointment of further
broken promises.
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Disclosure: The Newberry Springs Community Alliance
holds an anti-billboard position in its reporting. The alliance was formed after a
Newberry Springs-Harvard Real Property Owners Association director was forciably removed
from his director's position for voicing concern over the appropriateness of the property owners'
association endorsing the alleged illegal billboards spearheaded by the
association's president, Spike Lynch, and its executive director,
Sandra Brittian. Material information about the billboards were being intentionally
and unethically hidden from the community. The Newberry Springs Community Alliance
was initially formed to make the withheld information public.
The Newberry Springs-Harvard Real Property Owners Association's membership represents
less than 1/2 of one percent (.005) of the property owners in the two areas of Newberry Springs and
Harvard. Therefore, the Newberry Springs-Harvard Real Property Owners Association has been
rejected by 99.5 percent
of the property owners who have chosen not to be a part of the discredited and unethical
association. There is no validity for the Newberry Springs-Harvard Real Property Owners Association
to speak on behalf of either community.
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