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Pittsburgh’s Zoning Board of Adjustment has ruled that a landmark sign atop Mt. Washington violates city zoning regulations, and the city wants the owner to remove it immediately.

The Department of Permits Licenses and Inspections served Lamar Advertising with a notice of violation last year after the company pasted a black-and-gold vinyl advertisement for Sprint on what had been, for years, an electronic billboard for Bayer Co.

PLI accused Lamar of erecting the 32-by-225-foot sign without a permit.

Lamar, the nation’s largest outdoor advertiser, appealed PLI’s decision to the zoning board, which denied the appeal on Feb. 16.

Kevin Acklin, Mayor Bill Peduto’s chief of staff, said the city would sue to have the sign removed if Lamar fails to respond.

“Our next step will be to enforce this action in court,” Acklin said. “This was a blatant violation from the very beginning.”

Downtown attorney Jonathan Kamin, who represents Lamar, said the company is exploring legal options.

“We have worked for many years to try and modernize the sign,” he said. “We’re still hopeful that we can come to an agreement on how to do that, but at this point without the city approving our modernization request, we were left with no alternative other than to put up a vinyl sign.”

Lamar originally applied to replace the sign with a large electronic billboard, but the city denied the request.

Peduto said the vinyl sign is illegal and praised the Zoning Board for its decision.

“Their intent the entire time was to put up a giant LED board that would beam down, and I’m not kidding you, ‘This week’s special chipped-chopped ham,’ onto the city,” Peduto said. “When they didn’t get their way, they just wrapped it up in vinyl and took what money they could get.”

The Zoning Board ruled that Lamar not only lacked a permit but also violated several zoning regulations that included exceeding size limitations with the new sign and replacing an electronic billboard with a vinyl sign.

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff reporter. You can contact Bob at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or via Twitter .