A Clear Channel billboard at the Katy Freeway will be raised 10 feet under a settlement with the county. The bill to Harris County taxpayers for the Katy Freeway project got a half-million dollars bigger this week.
On Tuesday, the Commissioners Court approved a $525,000 settlement with Clear Channel Outdoors over a billboard that was blocked by the construction of a ramp linking the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes to Metro's Addicks Park & Ride.
The settlement also allowed Clear Channel to raise the billboard near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Texas 6 about 10 feet so the sign can be seen from the main lanes.
The dispute involves a visibility easement, bought by Clear Channel when it erected the billboard in 2001, that set a 25-foot height limit for any structures on the neighboring property. The easement transferred with the neighboring property when Harris County acquired it two years later for the ramp project.
The ramp ended up being 28 feet high.
Judge Jacqueline Lucci Smith ruled in March that Harris County had violated a provision of the Texas Constitution that bars governmental bodies from taking or damaging private property without compensating its owner.
Rejecting the county's argument that drivers on the ramp still could see the billboard, Smith ordered the county to pay Clear Channel for its loss. The case would have ended up before a jury to determine damages if the parties had not settled.
It was not clear Thursday why the ramp ended up exceeding the restriction. Harris County Toll Road Authority Director Gary Stobb said he did not know if the Texas Department of Transportation contractor who designed the ramp was unaware of the restriction or chose to exceed it because building a lower ramp would have cost much more or might have been impossible from an engineering standpoint.
Stobb downplayed the significance of the settlement, saying the amount is a fraction of the $250 million HCTRA invested in the Katy Freeway expansion. The highway project cost $2.8 billion overall.
"It's not like we built the wrong ramp ... ," he said. "It just is an additional cost to that design solution that wasn't apparent until after it was under construction."
First Assistant County Attorney John Barnhill declined to speculate on why the ramp ended up violating the easement. Asked whether the county planned to seek repayment from the state, he replied, "We have an ongoing working relationship with TxDOT and there is no litigation contemplated."
He said he was unable to get information Thursday explaining why Clear Channel was able to get both a monetary settlement and permission to raise the billboard.
Anne Culver, executive director of the anti-billboard advocacy group Scenic Houston, called the two-pronged settlement double-dipping for an industry that gets special treatment compared to other businesses.
"What is going to happen when tree plantings grow tall and a billboard owner at some angle determines that a tree is blocking visibility?" she asked. "Are they going to then insist that trees be cut down or trees be trimmed so their billboards can be seen?"
Michelle Costa, president of Clear Channel Outdoor's Houston division, said her company "exercised our right just like any other business in Harris County could do."
Clear Channel's appraiser pegged the value of the billboard and the easement at about $1 million. Harris County's appraisal set the value at about $636,000.
