Allegheny County is premature in seeking proposals from firms to install electronic billboards on some of its buildings, roads and rights of way.

The question the county should ask first is whether a boom in flashing ad signs is a good idea. Before figuring out how much could be earned by leasing spots along 810 miles of county-owned land or on its buildings, the county first should determine whether the billboards can be integrated into the streetscape without hurting the character of local communities.

The county Department of Administrative Services last month issued a request for proposals, due Nov. 25, from firms interested in submitting plans for electronic billboards. They are to designate the 25 sites with the highest potential for revenue. If County Council agrees to lease land or buildings for that purpose, the firms will pay for building the structures, renting and maintaining them.

The county's request is not a solicitation for bids on specific sites and doesn't mean any signs will be erected. A spokesman for County Executive Dan Onorato said the idea is to gauge interest and see what kind of revenue billboards could bring.

Mr. Onorato is careful with the county's tax dollars and he wants to forestall any property tax increases, particularly as he campaigns for governor as a fiscal conservative, but looking for other revenue sources should not mean closing the county's eyes to the potential problems a billboard plan might bring.

He doesn't need to look any farther than three blocks from his office in the courthouse to Downtown's Grant Street Transportation Center for a lesson in how not to handle billboard use. In that debacle, a city zoning administrator gave the go-ahead for a 19-by-58-foot electronic sign before testing community support. Required hearings and votes were not conducted first and, after City Council members challenged it, the Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected the sign. Now the matter is in court, and Lamar Advertising claims damages exceeding $1 million.

The better way to proceed would be for the county to decide, with plenty of public input, which byways, vistas and buildings should be unsullied by signage as part of a comprehensive plan before focusing on the money to be made by leasing public land for flashing billboards.

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