On March 13, 2018, City Council discussed the public concern over the lack of color coordination between the new advertising bus benches and existing street furniture.  At the end of the discussion, the Council unanimously directed that the Focus Media Group bus benches be painted to closely match the existing Clear Channel bus shelters with color swatches to be delivered to Public Works with final approval by the City Council.

Staff has met with Focus Media Group and Clear Channel to coordinate efforts between the companies that have vested interests in assisting the City to achieve a uniform theme. Focus Media Group has agreed to remove all concrete benches by mid-April at their own cost. The concrete art benches will remain in place.  Most existing metal (dark green), non-advertising benches will be replaced with the new advertising benches.  The few that remain will be re-coated with a color that matches the chosen color at no cost to the City. In addition, Focus Media Group has agreed to share half of the costs for powder coating a new color onto their advertising benches that had been coated green, reducing the City’s costs down to $7,700.  A few key bus stops that had double advertising green benches placed next to Clear Channel’s blue shelters have had the second bench removed to avoid a cluttered look.

A photo of a bench coated in blue is attached to this report for Council review and approval.

The cost of recoating existing green benches to blue would indirectly impact net shared revenues received by the City for the new benches in the amount of $7,700.

It is recommended that the City Council:

• Approve the blue color shown in the attached photo.

By:  A.J. Holmon, III

       Environmental Services Coordinator