City to start cracking down on illegal billboards

From the NY Post:

It’s taken Buildings Department officials eight years, but they’ve finally figured out that Yankee Stadium is nowhere near Yonkers.

So the giant billboard off the Yankee Stadium exit ramp from the Major Deegan Expressway that’s been in violation of zoning regulations since 2004 — under a bizarre exemption claiming it’s within a half-mile of the city’s boundary line — will have to come down.

So will about 75 advertising signs on properties owned by the MTA, the Port Authority and Amtrak that a federal judge ruled in 2009 fall under the city’s jurisdiction, but which the department for some reason never got around to reviewing.

“We will be enforcing against the signs on those properties,” vowed Buildings spokesman Tony Sclafani.

One of those is the iPad ad draping an MTA building that’s practically within touching distance of motorists headed south on FDR Drive near 125th Street.

Operators of some of the smaller billboard companies say they have an explanation why the illegal signs have been allowed to stay up for so long: selective enforcement. They claim they’re getting hammered by fines that start at $10,000 per violation, while bigger billboard players such as Van Wagner get a free ride.