A developer's plan to install a four-story LED billboard overlooking Herald Square is facing fresh opposition from Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal , who has joined the local community board in urging the city to reject the proposal over concerns about its impact on nearby apartments, including hundreds in a building owned by the developer's family.

The plan would require the city to change its zoning rules to allow a 2,333-square-foot advertising display on Herald Center, across from Macy's. The developer argues that the sign could help revive the area's struggling retail corridor, while Community Board 5 says the applicant offered to consider blackout shades for tenants bothered by the light.

The proposal now heads to the City Planning Commission, which is scheduled to hold a public hearing Wednesday, Oct. 28.

JEMB Realty, through an affiliated company, wants to install the billboard at Herald Center, a nine-story commercial building at 1293 Broadway. The developer's family also owns Herald Towers, a residential building with roughly 690 apartments directly across Sixth Avenue.

Architectural drawings show the billboard wrapping around the building's angled corner in three connected LED panels, spanning a combined 58 feet. The display would begin about 60 feet above street level and rise another 40 feet, cycling through commercial advertisements.

Current zoning rules prohibit advertising signs at the property and generally limit other signs to 40 feet above street level. JEMB is seeking a zoning text amendment and special permit to allow the larger, higher display.

The proposed zoning language would apply to properties in a particular commercial district with frontage on Broadway, Sixth Avenue and West 34th Street — criteria that, according to Community Board 5, the developer's attorney acknowledged would apply only to Herald Center.

Hoylman-Sigal took issue with that approach in an Oct. 14 recommendation urging the city to reject the application.

The borough president argued that rewriting zoning rules for one building could encourage similar requests elsewhere in Manhattan. Instead, he called for a broader plan governing illuminated advertising throughout Herald Square, with input from residents, businesses and other neighborhood stakeholders.

His recommendation followed Community Board 5's September vote against the project.

"Given the inherent conflicts between bright lights and people seeking a good night’s sleep, New York City Zoning regulations generally seek to limit light trespass from commercial signage into residential homes," he wrote. "The location of the Proposed Sign, directly adjacent to a 691-unit residential building, is in direct conflict with these precedents."

For Nancy Aber Goshow, chair of Community Board 5's Land Use, Housing and Zoning Committee, the concern goes beyond one billboard.

At the board's Sept. 10 meeting, she warned that approving the project could open the door to similar displays elsewhere in the city.

"To me, this is something I call Times Square everywhere," Goshow said. "We need to have Times Square where it is."

Goshow questioned the benefit of placing a massive advertisement so high above the sidewalk, arguing that most pedestrians aren't looking 60 to 100 feet into the air. She also warned that the city's decades-old signage regulations had not kept pace with digital technology.