Shocking and unexpected: that is how San Jose residents have described a plan to erect two digital billboards near the city’s airport.
For decades San Jose had a ban on putting up billboards, but in 2018, the city council reversed course, opening up a bidding process for new signs on city owned property.
When the plan to build two digital billboards at the San Jose International Airport was unveiled this week, many residents were taken by surprise.
“Nowhere in any of our conversations of the past year has the airport location been brought up,” said Jason Hemp, leader of a local community group that opposes the new billboards.
Responding to resident concerns, airport officials stated that the location was carefully selected to limit the impact onto neighboring businesses and airport operations, but Hemp believes the impact is unavoidable.
"They're hard to take down, they’re visual blight," he told KCBS Radio.
He expressed that his dislike of the plans stems from their unoriginality.
"They make San Jose more like anywhere else in the United States," Hemp said, asking "where is our uniqueness?"
The digital billboards must still be approved by the city council before building operations may go into effect.
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