A view of the large electronic billboard for the Escondido Auto Park along Highway 15. Union-Tribune

The opportunity is here to enhance Oceanside with a revenue stream that doesn’t require raising taxes.

It would give this thriving city a chance to hire additional first-responders, build senior centers or parks and pools for our community’s youth.

Those benefits usually arrive only because of a tax hike. But Oceanside can enhance its citizens’ quality of life without lowering their standard of living with a tax increase.

Oceanside can accomplish this by approving four LED digital billboards.

These billboards are regulated, policed and monitored by Caltrans and must abide by all Caltrans regulations.

They can provide $1 million annually for the city to pay for numerous critical programs.

If thinking just of law enforcement, that’s roughly enough money for Oceanside to hire five police officers a year.

Or the money could go toward the construction and maintenance of a pool facility for our children.

Regardless where those funds are directed, they’re going into the city coffers without raising taxes. And it can be done without water being required, zero bond payments, and no demands for city services from the police, fire, parking traffic, etc.

The LED billboards will also serve as a community message center for city requested emergency and public service announcements. As well as Amber Alerts for missing and kidnapped children and the posting of the FBI’s 10 most wanted.

Along with this well-vetted idea to secure funds for the city’s benefit came detractors. That’s not surprising, as most city endeavors have two sides and we always respect those with a different viewpoint.

But when debating a project’s sustainability, it’s up to one side to keep the other side truthful. Those opposing the LED billboards, which are built at no cost to the city, are advancing a version of the endeavor that is troubling and intentionally misleading.

The notion that LED billboards are new to North San Diego County is false. There are three LED Billboards in our region alongside the heavily traveled I-15 corridor.

Another concern is that LED billboards have a negative impact on traffic. Yet a 2014 report from the Federal Highway Administration concluded otherwise, when commenting on a motorist passing one:

“The longest fixation to a digital billboard was 1.34 seconds, and to a standard billboard, it was 1.28 seconds, both of which are well below the accepted standard.’’

The LED billboards, in locations based on Oceanside’s stringent sign ordinance, cannot feature animation, blinking lights or any movement per Caltrans rules and regulations.

The signs’ time restrictions rebuff another argument regarding the illumination leaking into the sky. Not only will the lights cease at midnight, but technology allows for the bulbs’ brightness to decrease at sundown. Plus, LED light reflection is pointed down in a specific area and not up like that from an incandescent bulb, spilling in all directions.

Any project’s carbon footprint needs to be considered and this is no different. The required environmental impact reports will be posted for public review in the near future. We already know there’s no smog or traffic linked to an LED billboard.

Energy to run an LED billboard? Again, with the technological advances in lighting and with the LED billboards limited use, the energy requirement equates to what’s consumed by a mid-sized restaurant.

Oceanside, which has constructed one billboard in 25 years, is no longer a mid-sized city with undersized dreams. Its citizens deserve a municipality that delivers police and fire services, parks and recreation facilities, provides for seniors and maintains the roads.

That’s a goal that can be advanced through LED billboards and done so without raising taxes.

By approving LED billboards on city property for the city’s benefit, Oceanside’s financial windfall in this public/private partnership can help fund important departments and programs.

When I see an LED billboard, I spot a well-conceived, revenue-producing idea that is good for the city of Oceanside and its citizens.

Kern is a member of the Oceanside City Council.