STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 88-3478T

) BILL SALTER ADVERTISING, INC., ) d/b/a BILL SALTER OUTDOOR )

ADVERTISING, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

This matter came on for hearing in Pensacola, Florida, before Robert T. Benton, II, Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings, on September 26, 1988. The Division of Administrative Hearings received the hearing transcript on October 5, 1988. The attached appendix addresses proposed findings of fact set out in the agency's proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Nobody appeared for respondent. Petitioner was represented by counsel: Charles G. Gardner, Esquire

Department of Transportation

Haydon Burns Building, Mail Station 58 Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0458

By form letter to Bill Salter Advertising, Inc. (Salter), Milford D. Truette announced petitioner's intention to void permits Nos. AT 402-35 and AT 403-35 for respondent's failure to erect ". . . completed sign[s] at the proposed site of the west side of U.S. Alt 90, 415 feet south of SR 297, Escambia County, . . . facing north and south, within 270 days after the date on which the permits] issued." DOT's Exhibit No. 2.

On June 29, 1988, the Department of Transportation (DOT) received a request for administrative hearing "pursuant to sect. 120.57," which it treated as a request for formal proceedings and transmitted to the Division of Administrative Hearings, in apparent conformity with Section 120.57(1)(b)3., Florida Statutes (1987).

ISSUE

Whether DOT should void outdoor advertising permits Nos. AT402-35 and AT403-35?

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. On March 20, 1987, (T. 12) DOT issued advertising sign permits to respondent, Nos. AT 402-35 and AT 403-35, authorizing construction of a metal

   outdoor advertising sign "monopole" 43 feet high with sign boards facing north and south, less than a tenth of a mile south of Alternate U.S. Highway 90, a "federal aid primary road" (T. 11), immediately west of State Road 297 in Escambia County. DOT's Exhibit No. 1.

   
   

2. In May of 1988, Outdoor Media, Inc., applied for a permit to construct an outdoor advertising sign at a site five or six hundred feet east of the intersection of State Road 297 and Alternate U.S. Highway 90. Because the site proposed by Outdoor Media, Inc., is visible from and lies within 660 feet of the main traveled way of Alternate U.S. Highway 90 and because it lies within 1,000 feet of the site on which DOT had authorized Salter to erect signs, DOT denied Outdoor Media, Inc.'s, application.

   
   

3. When Philip N. Brown, who works in DOT's outdoor advertising section, reported that no sign had ever been built at the site for which Salter had obtained permits Nos. AT402-35 and AT403-35, DOT notified Salter of its intent to void and revoke the permits. DOT's Exhibit No. 2.

   
   

4. Some time after June 19, 1988, more than 18 days after DOT sent Salter notice of its intent to void the sign permits, Salter erected a wooden sign on the site. On March 10, 1988, Salter had obtained a building permit from Escambia County for the metal monopole structure, but, because more than 180 days had elapsed without any call for inspection, Escambia County declared the building permit null and void on September 23, 1988.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

5. The provisions of Section 479.07(5)(a), Florida Statutes (1987), apply in this case. In part, the subsection reads:

If the permittee fails to erect a completed sign on the permitted site within 270 days after the date on which the permit was issued, the permit will be void, and the department may not issue a new permit to that permittee for the same location for 270 days after the date on which the permit became void.

Since Salter failed to erect completed signs on the permitted site for a period well in excess of 270 days after the permits issued, the permits are void.

It is, accordingly, RECOMMENDED:

That DOT declare permits Nos. AT402-35 and AT403-35 void and issue Salter no new permit for the same location for 270 days after the date of the final order.

DONE and ENTERED this 6th day of October 1988, in Tallahassee, Florida.

ROBERT T. BENTON, II

Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1550

FILED with the Clerk of the Division Administrative Hearings this 6th day of October 1988.

APPENDIX

Petitioner's proposed findings of fact have been adopted, in substance, insofar as material.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Charles G. Gardner, Esquire Department of Transportation Haydon Burns Building

605 Suwannee Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0450

Bill Salter Outdoor Advertising, Inc. Post Office Box 422

Milton, Florida 32572

Kaye N. Henderson, P.E. Secretary

Department of Transportation 605 Suwannee Street

Haydon Burns Building Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0450

Docket for Case No: 88-003478

Orders for Case No: 88-003478