RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A billboard visible from Interstate 64 in Richmond’s Northside is caught in the middle of controversy between the city and the company who owns it.
State and city leaders have called for the billboard that sits atop of Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground to be removed. According to Virginia.org, the site is Richmond’s second African Burial Ground, where over 22 thousand African Americans are buried.
A former gas station currently sits at the site with a mural painted on it to honor the people who were buried there. Alongside the gas station also sits the blank billboard, which is owned by Lamar Advertising. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has called on this billboard to be removed.
“It’s just wrong that a company is making a profit on a site of sacred ground,” said Stoney.
The city took ownership of the property in April 2021, however, the city said Lamar got a perpetual easement from the previous owners of the gas station in 2006. This is what allows the billboard to remain in a place of high visibility at the I-64/I-95 interchange just north of downtown Richmond.
Stoney said city officials met with Lamar in November of last year to try to find a way to remove it, but he said the proposal the company submitted the following month won’t work for him.
“They wanted to trade the one site at the Shockoe Hill Cemetery for six other sites, and 12, essentially, billboards [in total throughout the city],” Stoney said. “To me, that’s unacceptable.”
8News has obtained a document that explained the proposed six-to-one property swap, but is still waiting for clarification from Lamar about the details of the proposal. A company spokesperson said the billboard was built in the 1980’s, which was years before the land was officially declared a historic site.
Lamar sent the following statement to 8News:
“Lamar Advertising prides ourselves on being a great community and business partner here in the Richmond area. In November 2023, the City of Richmond asked Lamar whether we would be willing to take down the billboard located near the Shockoe Hill Burial ground. At that meeting, Lamar replied that we would work toward finding an amicable solution with the city, and the city leaders expressed gratitude at Lamar’s willingness to help them solve this issue. The city did not respond to Lamar’s proposed resolution until noon on Friday. It is Lamar’s intent to continue to work in good faith with the interested parties to come to a suitable resolution.”
Stoney said he hopes that they will be able to find a resolution going forward.
“We think that Lamar Advertising should do the right thing, and the right thing is to extinguish the easement that’s currently on the property and also to cease the operation of the billboard, or remove the billboard from the site,” Stoney said.
