Illegal billboards that have been part of the city landscape for decades could finally be coming down under tough new regulations adopted last week, The Post has learned.
The regulations require all outdoor advertising companies to register with the city Buildings Department starting Aug. 25 and to provide a list of billboards within 900 feet of an arterial highway or 200 feet of a park.
Officials said just about all of them violate the law and face the ax.
Signs erected under zoning codes dating back to the 1960s – it’s not clear how many fit into that category – would be exempt.
“There are hundreds of signs likely to be illegal,” declared Buildings spokeswoman Ilyse Fink.
Companies that ignore removal orders face stiff fines of up to $25,000 a day once the regulations kick in early next year.
Fink said billboards can generate so much revenue that severe fines are “the only way to make people comply.”
City officials had been trying since July 2005 to draft regulations that would rein in the illegal signs, but couldn’t secure cooperation from segments of the industry.
“The big guys are for this, but you’ve got smaller guys out there who are making an awful lot of money and wanted to get grandfathered [exempted from the new regulations],” confided one industry source.
Billboards in high-traffic locales can command tens of thousands of dollars a month.
The Queens approach to the Midtown Tunnel, where a captive audience of bumper-to-bumper motorists is guaranteed every rush hour, is one of those prized locations.
But, as one city official put it, “99 percent of those signs are illegal” since the law bars them from being so close to the Long Island Expressway.
Building owners who’ve rented space on the sides of their buildings for advertising could also be in a bind.
City Councilman Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan) said he believes many signs in SoHo and TriBeCa are illegal and should be yanked right now.
“We’re on the verge of becoming Times Square if the proliferation continues,” he warned.
City officials believe that some billboard owners will fight hard to keep what they’ve got.
“The expectation is they will sue us,” said one official.