Billboard Blight Is in Eyes Of the Freeway Beholders COMMENTARY Guest Column by Gerald Silver Community associations have long been involved in the issue of billboard blight. Over a decade ago an ordinance was proposed to ban all new billboards in Los Angeles. That ordinance was supported by a coalition of homeowner associations and many other organizations and community groups. The ordinance proposed in 1988 would have banned all new billboards and by this year would have made a substantial improvement in the appearance of Los Angeles. Because of state amortization laws, created by the lobbying of the billboard industry, it is not possible to order the removal of all existing billboards without payment to the billboard owners. Unfortunately, the 1988 billboard ban was defeated by an 8-7 vote by the Los Angeles City Council. Among the eight council members siding with the billboard industry were Councilmen Hal Bernson, Nate Holden and Joel Wachs. As a result, existing billboards stayed up and now there are more billboards than ever on our city streets polluting the environment. The present weak citywide ordinance permits billboards up to 800 square feet in size and 42 feet in height along surface streets. Many of these visual nightmares are very large monopoles that cantilever over buildings. These billboards are dysfunctional and unattractive in their design and they are not permitted along the freeways. A new ordinance proposed by Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas is now before the Los Angeles City Council. This proposal, supported by the billboard industry, would exchange 15 billboard faces for one new, gigantic board on the freeway. The Ridley-Thomas proposal would not solve the problem of billboard blight but would merely shift it onto the industrial sections of the freeways. His proposed ordinance would open the freeways to huge, unattractive, monopole billboards for the first time in the city’s history. This is a Faustian bargain that does not solve the problem of billboard clutter. But tearing down the thousands of illegal billboards in this city would have a dramatic impact on the face of the city. The City Council should act promptly to place a flat-out ban all new billboards, without giving any concessions to the billboard industry. The temporary Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) in place should be made permanent, and go after the thousands of illegal billboards in the city. The failure to ban billboards and noisy leaf blowers has done more to ruin the quality of life in this city than any other action taken by the City Council in decades. Maybe now is the time for a clean sweep. Gerald A. Silver is president of Homeowners of Encino.
