Schreeder, Wheeler & Flint has extensive experience advising and assisting the outdoor advertising industry in a wide variety of issues and disputes. The firm has represented outdoor advertising clients for more than forty years. Our attorneys have helped formulate the law under which the outdoor advertising industry operates within the State of Georgia and actively represent outdoor advertising clients with regard to permit applications, rezonings, challenges to overreaching regulations on constitutional and procedural grounds, eminent domain, regulatory development, and leasing issues.
We are longtime members of both the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia and regularly attend and present at their annual meetings. Although focused within the State of Georgia, our experience extends across the Southeastern United States.
Our attorneys have obtained favorable results for the firm's outdoor advertising clients, both through negotiation and litigation. For example, we have successfully lobbied for the adoption of favorable LED sign ordinances in Cobb and Forsyth Counties and the City of Marietta; we have successfully obtained local and state sign permits for our clients across the State of Georgia; and we have successfully negotiated the relocation of numerous outdoor advertising signs affected by state and local condemnation actions.
Although we strive to negotiate favorable resolutions, we also have significant experience protecting our clients' constitutional and substantive rights through litigation where necessary. Representative cases include Fulton County v. Galberaith, 282 Ga. 314 (2007) and Fulton County v. Action Outdoor Advertising JV, LLC, 289 Ga. 347 (2011), in which we succeeded in having the Fulton County sign ordinance declared unconstitutional and preserved our clients' rights to construct their signs despite the intervening creation of several new municipalities; City of Columbus v. Georgia Department of Transportation, 274 Ga. 878 (2013), in which we represented the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia in successfully defending legislation allowing vegetation management adjacent to outdoor advertising signs; Outdoor Systems, Inc. v. Cobb County, 274 Ga. 606 (2001), in which we obtained a ruling invalidating a county ordinance prohibiting the reconstruction of a sign damaged by a tornado; and Lamar Advertising of South Georgia v. City of Albany, 260 Ga. 46 (1990), in which we obtained a ruling prohibiting the use of amortization clauses to force the removal of outdoor advertising signs.
This practice area is led by Scott W. Peters. For any questions or additional information about our outdoor advertising practice, please contact Scott at 404-681-3450 or speters@swfllp.com.