The long-time owner of a commercial building and static billboard in Mattapan Square has again filed for permission to convert the platform to a digital electronic billboard, with neighbors and some city leaders voicing concern – and opposition – to the plan.

In a Sept. 4 abutter’s meeting online, Joseph Lombard, the 72-year-old long-time owner of 1671 Blue Hill Ave., which houses a T-Mobile store with 14-by-48-foot billboard on top, said he hopes to convert the latter via his company JB Visuals of Georgia. A billboard of the same size has sat on top of the building since the 1930s.

This was a second proposal for Lombard; he put it forward unsuccessfully in 2019.

Digital billboards are generally considered to be two to three times more lucrative to advertisers because they can change messages on them at their discretion.

Lombard described his renewed proposal as an opportunity to “modernize” Mattapan Square, create a “marquee,” and upgrade the broken, tri-vision billboard that has been in place for 18 years.

“If I was going to put this in a neighborhood on River Street – I would say it’s not going to fit there because it’s on until [midnight] and there’s no way to not bother neighbors,” he said. “In this location it’s more of a highway. That’s Rt. 28 and, in all honesty, this billboard projects a whole new image for Mattapan Square.”

He said it would promote safety and community events and could be an opportunity for local businesses to advertise for around $130 on targeted occasions.

As intense as his sales pitch was, neighbors and the city weren’t buying it in the discussion.

Ruth Georges, president of the Cummins Highway Neighborhood Association (CHNA), raised numerous concerns, and said afterwards that the proposal was on the Oct. 17 CHNA agenda.

“We’re going to allow him due process, but we are also hyper-aware that it is illegal [within the zoning] and further concerned about his investment in Mattapan the last 20 years,” she said. “We understand the need for modernization, but we don’t think it’s the appropriate place for it. The Square has bigger challenges, and this is not an immediate one.”

Fatima Ali-Salaam, chair of the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council (GMNC), said at the abutter’s meeting that the billboard wasn’t consistent with the goals of the multi-year planning initiative – PLAN Mattapan – that the community concluded last year.

“Electronic billboard signs…are not in compliance with what we would like to see and the expressed positions of many residents of how they would like to see Mattapan Square change,” she said.

During a separate meeting of the GMNC on Sept. 9, others took positions on the billboard proposal.

Kathleen Onufer, deputy director of zoning for the city’s Planning Department, said they would be opposing it, as did District 4 Councillor Enrique Pepen.

No date has been set for the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing, and one won’t be until after the CHNA meeting.