The folks at Curbed must be really excited - the Department of Buildings has announced a new program requiring outdoor advertising to be registered first. Here's what the DoB's press release says:

The new rules enhance the Department's regulatory authority over billboards and are aimed at combating the proliferation of illegal signs near the City's major arterial highways and parks.

The new regulations implement provisions of Local Laws 14/2001 and 31/2005. This legislation focuses on advertising signs in and around public parks and highways where visual clutter has significantly increased over the last decade, causing unsightly and potentially unsafe situations. Once the new rules go into effect, owners of signs that are found to be non-compliant may incur penalties up to $25,000 per day and the signs may be removed by the City...

Pursuant to the Local Laws, outdoor advertising companies conducting business in the City must register their signs located within 900 feet and in view of an arterial highway or within 200 feet and within view of any public park that is one-half acre or larger.

So, ads right across from any park - from the 800+ acre Central Park or the 6.2 acre Madison Square Park - would be regulated as well as the highways. Of course, this doesn't mean the plague of overwhelming ads with stop.

Here's info on DoB's building signs registration process, which will go into effect next month. And here's the Municipal Art Society's gallery of outdoor advertising cluttering the city.