A high-flying battle is a-brew over a West Side Highway rooftop billboard for the Broadway hit “Wicked.”
Van Wagner Outdoor, which manages the space over 571 Riverside Drive near West 134th Street, claims it was forced by city regulation to remove the sign two months before the holiday season — but the ad’s creator, NYM Worldgroup, is suing to keep it up.
Taking it down now would “create negative buzz that ‘Wicked’ is closing,” and with the year’s most lucrative season at hand, no other outdoor space is available, NYM says.
By city ordinance, billboards may not go up within 900 feet of an arterial roadway or 200 feet of a park. Billboard companies challenged the rule in 2010 but gave up the fight, and the city has been hitting violators with fines.