Billboards allowed to stay
Committee to look for solution
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Last updated 11/24/2020 at 9:29am
Billboards along Main Street in Grand Coulee will be allowed to stay, at least until leases for the billboards are over, and a committee will be looking at ways to possibly allow them to stay indefinitely.
Following a couple of complaints, Sam Hsieh, who owns Coulee Plaza, a lot of grass and picnic tables on Main Street, was told he’d have to take down his advertising signs that line the property.
The money brought in from those signs helped pay the mortgage and maintenance costs of the property.
After being told he’d have to take them down, Hsieh started an online petition which received 650 signatures, many from Grand Coulee, the larger Grand Coulee Dam area, and from outside the area, as well from people Hsieh thinks are likely from here originally and keep up on local issues.
Hsieh provided those signatures, as well as a letter of support from the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, to the Grand Coulee City Council ahead of their Nov. 17 meeting.
At that meeting, the council decided the signs would be allowed to stay, at least until the leases were up, and the situation was referred to the planning committee to see if a solution could be found to amend city code, which currently only allows for one sign on a piece of property.
That committee includes CouncilmembersTammara Byers and Alan Cain, as well as citizens Nic Alexander, James O’Hara, and Cameron Whitney.
That committee will not be meeting until 2021.
The letter from the chamber of commerce says that Hsieh “was interested in creating a safe and well maintained open space downtown for everyone in the community, including our organization, to use as needed for community events. (Colorama, Kidz Fest, Harvest
Festival, etc.)
The letter says that Hsieh’s own Cars and Coffee event “has been a big hit within the Coulee automotive community.”
“One particular aspect of Dr. Hsieh’s intentions with Coulee Plaza in which the Chamber was (and is) in absolute support of was driving customers to our businesses downtown. He had seen the economic impact due to the lack of downtown traffic (empty buildings, run-down store fronts, etc.). His family had the means to help, so he took action to attempt to help our local businesses.”
The letter supports Hsieh’s effort to get the code changed to accept his advertising.
“The GCDA Chamber of Commerce sees this advertising as tasteful and beneficial to our local businesses and thus we support Coulee Plaza and Dr. Hsieh in his efforts to make a positive change to the current ordinance for the good of the community of Grand Coulee,” the letter reads.
The backstory can be found in two previous Star articles:
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