Monroeville council approved a new billboard zoning district on Tuesday in the first controversial vote for four newly elected officials.

A small but vocal group of billboard opponents immediately reacted with disbelief and disgust, giving the new officials a quick lesson in constituent politics.

Sidney W. Singer, a member of the planning commission that had unanimously recommended rejection of the billboard district, resigned his position.

"I can see what we do has no worth," Mr. Singer told council.

The new zoning district will allow big billboards to be erected along sections of the Parkway East and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Monroeville already allowed billboards, but size restrictions made them impractical on interstate highways.

The new zoning district will allow signs to be almost five times larger than in other zones. They also may be closer together and stand higher over the roads.

The new law creates "overlay districts" on both sides of the highways, including one section on the Parkway East at the Penn Hills border and three sections along the turnpike.

The Parkway East section is where Interstate Outdoor Advertising, of Cherry Hill, N.J., had requested 33 zoning variances to erect four double-sided billboards. Council approved Interstate's plans last year, despite a planning commission recommendation to reject it.

But Interstate's project floundered when the zoning board rejected the variances. Interstate then sued Monroeville in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to reverse the zoning board. The case is pending.

Then James D. Chiafullo, a Cohen & Grigsby attorney who represents Interstate Outdoor Advertising, proposed the billboard district. He drafted an ordinance, and Monroeville Solicitor Bruce Dice revised his proposal.

Eight residents spoke against the ordinance and no one supported it on Tuesday.

Billboards create visual clutter and blight, degrade scenic views and endanger safety by distracting motorists, said Marilyn Skolnick, a local Sierra Club official who says she represents 72 Monroeville members.

"If you pass it," Mr. Singer warned, "your children will ask why you ... brought this blight onto Monroeville."

Mayor James Lomeo, who does not have a vote and seldom comments on proposed legislation, said the billboard district is contrary to the town's streetscape beautification program.

The vote was 5-2 to create the billboard districts. Veteran council members John A. Danzilli Jr. and Carol J. McDevitt were joined by newcomers Marshall Boone, Frank Franci and Clarence Ramsey. Veteran David Kucherer and newcomer Deborah Hartwick voted against it.

The anti-billboard residents were stunned and went back to the microphones.

"How much revenue will the borough receive for installing those gigantic, monstrous billboards? What are the benefits?" asked Ellen Lynch.

Mrs. Skolnick challenged council members to explain their votes. She got no takers.

"If you don't respond, you're letting people think the worst," she said. "It's awfully smelly," she later told a reporter.

"Do you drive the Parkway?" Adam Lynch asked Mr. Danzilli, implying that billboards will ruin the views. The councilman responded that he doesn't like to see dead deer, re-capped tires and litter.

Mr. Ramsey said he would explain his vote "somewhere down the line."

The meeting was adjourned and the billboard opponents buttonholed their representatives.

Mr. Franci told the Post-Gazette that he had heard nothing negative about billboards from his constituents before the meeting.

"I don't even notice them," he said. 'I don't see billboards. I can't tell you where on the Parkway there is a billboard or isn't one."

Mr. Kucherer said many of his constituents told him they were opposed to billboards.

The billboard dustup overshadowed council's unanimous adoption of a new comprehensive plan, a kind of master plan or blueprint that is meant to guide officials on Monroeville's development. It says nothing about billboards.