Golf course billboards approved

The city of Mounds View and Clear Channel Outdoors have finally received approval from the state to erect billboards, a move that provides a big financial boost to the city's struggling golf course.

Construction could begin by the end of the month.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation's decision to grant the permit ends a four-year odyssey for the city and company, which took their request all the way to the state Supreme Court.

Mounds View has even changed some of its zoning rules to aid the approval of the billboard application.

Current plans call for Clear Channel to erect six billboards along the portion of The Bridges of Mounds View Golf Course that abuts U.S. 10, said Jim Ericson, the city's community development director.

The company would pay the city about $250,000 a year to rent the space. The exact amount depends on ad revenue and the consumer price index. The city and Clear Channel are supposed to meet to discuss those terms soon, but the city would like the lease to remain in its current form, Ericson said.

"The city is very pleased by the outcome" (of Clear Channel's request), Ericson said. "This is something we've been planning on for four years. The financial viability of the golf course was predicated on getting the billboards out there."

The golf course has lost money nearly every year since it was built in 1995. While it can pay for its operating expenses through course revenue, it cannot meet its debt service payments, Ericson said. The city has had to transfer more than $1 million from other city funds to make debt service payments.

Although the billboards will greatly improve its finances, the golf course still will not be able to meet its debt service payments without some assistance. The city, which expects a $40,000 to $50,000 annual shortfall, is considering several options to raise additional revenue, including redeveloping portions of the golf course.

MnDOT -- which has jurisdiction over outdoor advertising along highways in the state -- denied Clear Channel's original application because it felt billboards did not fit the course's zoning designation. The course was previously zoned "public facilities," the category once given to all city-owned land.

The city has since changed the zoning designation of all city-owned land, and the application was approved.

Clear Channel received approval for its billboard plans earlier this week from the Mounds View Planning Commission. The six billboards will be 45 feet tall, and some of them will be about 500 feet apart. Both of those conditions are variations from the city's zoning code.

The start date for billboard construction hasn't been set because Clear Channel still must receive permits from the Rice Creek Watershed District, Ericson said.

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)