Billboard rules to live by

Six years ago the Los Angeles Planning Commission sought to impose reasonable controls on the growing number of billboards lining city streets, cluttering the horizon and, in the case of digital signs, shining into homes. The proposed ordinance would have banned new billboards except in a limited number of designated sign districts, such as downtown near L.A. Live, where new billboards and bright displays would fit the community aesthetic. It was a good plan.

But the proposal stalled at the City Council, waylaid by lawsuits and lobbying by the powerful sign industry. A council committee eventually sent the proposal back to the commission with two controversial requests. First, commissioners were asked to eviscerate the proposed sign districts by allowing companies to put up billboards almost anywhere in Los Angeles, provided that they persuaded city officials to grant the permit. And historically, council members have been all too happy to approve billboards in exchange for other improvements in their communities. Second, commissioners were asked to grant amnesty to 937 billboards that lacked permits or were out of compliance — a generous gift to sign companies.

To their credit, the commissioners were highly skeptical. One questioned why the city would rubber-stamp illegal billboards. Another worried that allowing billboards outside of sign districts on a case-by-case basis would further politicize land-use decisions (which are already notoriously political.) Several members wanted companies to take down significantly more signs for the right to put up a new digital billboard. And they were clearly frustrated that city inspectors have yet to enforce a 2013 law that created expensive fines for illegal billboards.

Although the council has the ultimate say over the sign ordinance, whether the commission acquiesces is crucially important. That’s because the council needs a supermajority to adopt something that the commission hasn’t approved.

The billboard industry is a major force in City Hall. Sign companies have been big spenders on city elections, and they’ve recruited nonprofits and unions to lobby the City Council for looser rules on the premise that more billboards mean more free advertising for the nonprofits’ causes and more jobs. Yet looser rules also mean more signs cluttering the horizon and more bright, garish digital billboards in inappropriate places. The Planning Commission should stand by its 2009 decision to limit new billboards, reject amnesty for illegal signs and demonstrate to the City Council what good planning looks like in L.A.