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Clallam: County leaders bow out of sign suit, effectively exempting
older billboards from sign ordinance by
JEFF CHEW It started with a billboard overlooking U.S. Highway 101 in Carlsborg. It ended with a weakened Clallam County sign ordinance. County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously decided to seek dismissal of a lawsuit that nationwide billboard company Viacom Outdoor Inc. filed last year against the county. The lawsuit resulted in Western U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton's May 23 ruling: If the county's sign code requires removal of a sign that existed before the sign code was adopted, then the Scenic Vistas Act requires the county to compensate the owner. The act requires payment where a local ordinance requires an existing, nonconforming sign be reduced in size. |