align="justify">Billboard company executives say LED-lighted billboards are the wave of the future. But several community activists are fighting a proposed change in City of Reno rules that would allow the billboard industry to put up the digital electronic signs.

The activists fear electronic billboards would turn the city into a jumble of bright lights, stealing the character of the town and present a danger to motorists. "They are brighter than the sun," said Peter Chase Neumann, Scenic Nevada board chairman and a long-time Reno lawyer. "It's almost like someone put a strobe light in your eye."

If they're not stopped now, John Hara, a Scenic Nevada board member, said he fears flashing electronic signs someday could overrun the town, similar to the post-apocalyptic street scenes from the 1982 cult film, "Blade Runner."

At Councilman Dwight Dortch's urging, the Reno City Council recently turned the issue over to its planning commission to debate. Digital billboard signs are currently illegal under the city's zoning code while digital signs that promote a businesses on the same property are allowed in some instances.

Kelly Sleep, a Reno city planner, said a report to the planning commission will be coming in a few months after a thorough study of how other cities regulate signs using the light-emitting diode (LED) technology. Today, the Reno code allows lights only to shine on billboards and forbids the signs from producing light.

Rules for on-premise signs also will be studied, she said. Digital on-premise signs range from the Grand Sierra Resort's large sign along U.S. 395, big display signs for the Peppermill and Atlantis on Virginia Street, and signs for Boomtown and Cabela's along I-80 at Verdi.