An Outfront Media billboard at 1133 Champa St. on the Auraria campus. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
The Auraria Higher Education Center has, on several occasions in the past decade, openly defied Denver’s zoning restrictions around digital billboards, the city alleges.
City attorneys are asking a judge to force that cluster of colleges just west of downtown to take down two of the three billboards on its campus. The city claims that Auraria, which is a state entity, is working with the billboard company Outfront Media to ignore zoning laws.
“We cannot comment as AHEC has not been served,” said Shaneis Malouff, AHEC chief of staff.
Denver caps its number of billboards, meaning an owner must remove one before it can erect another, and doesn’t allow electronic billboards in areas zoned for educational use.
So, city officials were surprised when a billboard cropped up in the Walnut parking lot on the campus’ far west side in 2014, according to their Aug. 29 lawsuit. But the city opted to let the billboard remain, making a one-time exception to its billboard zoning laws.
The matter seemed settled. But nine years later, the dormant disagreement re-emerged.
“On May 15, 2023, AHEC informed Denver that it intended to implement a billboard strategy involving the construction and operation of multiple digital media billboards on AHEC-owned property,” according to the city’s lawsuit, which uses an acronym for Auraria.
An Outfront Media billboard at 1450 7th St., on the Auraria campus. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
The city said it reminded Auraria “that erecting any billboard would be in violation of Denver zoning regulations” and the campus then flatly ignored that warning, building an Outfront digital billboard along Speer Boulevard without a permit in December 2023.
Then, in June, a third billboard went up at 1450 7th St., along Auraria Parkway. So, the city sued Auraria and Outfront, and asked Judge Andrew Luxen to make them take the signs down.
A spokeswoman for Outfront did not answer a request for comment. The publicly traded company operates more than 700 billboards within city limits, according to its website.
“The City Attorney’s Office does not comment on pending litigation,” spokeswoman Melissa Sisneros said, “including any matters related to the city’s motivations for filing lawsuits. We are committed to addressing this matter through the appropriate legal channels.”
