Miami museum’s digital billboard survives city vote to repeal jumbo size rules

After months of pressure to revoke city permission for a jumbo digital billboard on Miami’s waterfront, the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s 100-foot-tall sign looks poised to survive the repeal effort.

City commissioners on Thursday mostly kept intact a 2023 law that supersized Miami’s billboard size caps for a few downtown locations, including at PAMM and the nearby Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Legislation that would have repealed the law fizzled when a narrow majority voted to rework the language in a way that would keep the larger billboard caps in place for the two cultural institutions.

“The signs aren’t coming down,” Commission Chair Christine King said.

King’s legislation, which passed 3 to 2, requires a final vote, scheduled for May 23. That gives backers of the repeal another shot at securing a majority on the five-member board.

Only one jumbo digital billboard stands today, the 1,800-square-foot sign that was under construction on the PAMM campus when Commissioner Damian Pardo, who was elected in November, launched the repeal effort in January. The Arsht has city permits for two similarly sized signs, with dimensions that are twice the size of what’s allowed in other parts of Miami.

READ MORE: There’s a supersized digital billboard rising downtown. Will Miami make it illegal?

While construction crews were working on the PAMM structure at the start of the fight, the sign is ready to go live as the battle approaches its fifth month. It was briefly illuminated Friday night at a level so bright that even the sign maker apologized publicly for the display.

“We ended up having human error involved,” said David Kile, an executive with the billboard installer, SNA Displays, who said the test run accidentally beamed out light six times brighter than planned.

King sponsored the language sought by Arsht and PAMM lobbyists to keep the 2023 law mostly intact. She did impose new restrictions, such as limiting Arsht to a single future sign instead of two and requiring jumbo billboards to mostly go dark after 11 p.m. The revised legislation also repeals the original allowances for digital billboards in two city parks downtown, though that won’t affect three smaller signs in that area already permitted under the 2023 law.

Because King’s proposal watered down the original repeal legislation, a final vote is needed to adopt the changes, extending debate on an item that’s already been on the agenda five times since January.

Each meeting saw residents in downtown condos urge commissioners to repeal the law championed by Alex Díaz de la Portilla, a former commissioner who lost his seat in November while facing corruption charges. “It’s about righting a wrong and protecting our neighborhood from these eyesores,” Rick Madan, president of the Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, told commissioners.

Both Arsht and PAMM representatives have pledged stylish digital installations that will mix art with commercial advertising, providing millions of dollars of new revenue for the charities.

“This project holds the key to financial sustainability for PAMM as a nonprofit organization, especially as we navigate the daunting task of rebuilding our budget in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,” PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans wrote commissioners in January.

The King amendment passed the commission 3 to 2 on Thursday, with Manolo Reyes on the losing side, along with the sponsor of the original repeal legislation, Pardo, who represents downtown. “I see this as a stamp of approval amendment for something that should not receive a stamp of approval,” Pardo said.

But even Pardo said his original repeal legislation wouldn’t have meant revoking permits already issued under the 2023 law, sponsored by then-commissioner Díaz de la Portilla before his arrest on corruption charges. Orange Barrel Media, the billboard company set to collect million of dollars in revenue through contracts with Arsht and PAMM, was a top campaign donor for Díaz de la Portilla, who lost his reelection bid in November.

By repealing the law, Pardo would have blocked future permits under the 2023 law, which also allows jumbo digital billboards in downtown’s Bayfront Park and Maurice A. Ferré Park.

One smaller sign measuring about 375 square feet is already up at Bayfront Park, and two others are in the pipeline with city permits. The revised legislation would repeal the larger size allowances for the two parks but wouldn’t quash the existing permits. The legislation also repeals allowances for 750-square-foot billboards for city buildings located in the Omni and Overtown economic-development districts, known as CRAs.

The King legislation keeps intact a rule allowing a billboard at Miami’s Olympia Theater. An Olympia sign would be governed by the city’s existing 750-square-foot cap.

Even with the Arsht and PAMM jumbo billboards still legal under city code, fights remain over how much money the signs could generate. Rival billboard companies claim the signs would violate state regulations banning commercial advertising close to a federal highway like Interstate 395, while in-house promotions for Arsht and PAMM exhibits could remain. That means the next front of the sign battle will likely be with state regulators and possibly the courts.

The legislation that passed the preliminary vote Thursday only allows Arsht to build one sign, though the nonprofit has permits for two. Arsht operates out of a facility owned by Miami-Dade County and may need county permission before pursuing construction of the billboard. That will give lobbyists for rival billboard companies a new battleground to try and block the Orange Barrel installation.

Other new restrictions include a requirement that the billboards go dark at 11 p.m., or midnight during special events. King’s legislation allows the sign owner’s logo to remain on the billboards around the clock. Between sunset and sunrise, the billboards would be limited to a brightness level of 500 nits, an illumination level that’s below what is found on an iPhone 12.

“I listened to everyone who came up and spoke,” King said. “We can’t take the signs away. But I heard them on the light.”