On Friday, despite significant opposition, the City of Los Angeles adopted another ordinance prohibiting new billboards and off-premise digital signs, as noted in last week's Member Alert. We thank everyone who voiced objection to this unfortunate, unanticipated last-minute action by the City. We are reviewing the changes with the CSA LA Task Force, Legal Counsel and Government Affairs Committee.
 
While the new ordinance will surely engender further billboard litigation, we will nonetheless continue to work with planning staff toward developing and rewriting reasonable on-premise sign regulations.
 
For a bit of history on this soap opera:

The City initially banned new billboards, including digital billboards, in 2002, with some exceptions for signs in special districts and development agreements. But in settlement of a lawsuit in 2006, the city agreed to allow three billboard companies the right to convert 877 conventional billboards to digital. In 2007, a sign company, World Wide Rush, filed suit in federal court asking the court to declare unconstitutional the off-site ban on grounds that the exceptions denied other companies the right to erect signs. Ruling in August 2008, the court agreed and ordered the city to cease enforcing the ban. By then, however, over 100 permits ad been issued pursuant to the prior settlement. The city then imposed a 6-month moratorium and appealed the case (now pending).
 
The billboard moratorium adopted last December by the City Council was intended to permit the city time to rewrite its sign ordinance so that it could supposedly pass constitutional muster and withstand legal challenge. In March of this year, after four public hearings, the City Planning Commission approved a revised ordinance that maintained the off-site sign ban but did away with the exceptions. The proposed ordinance would have still allowed digital, supergraphic, and otherwise prohibited sign types in sign districts, but the criteria and procedures for establishing these districts were made much more stringent. In addition, the proposal drastically impacted on-premise signs.
 
In July, the council extended the moratorium to September and directed the new city attorney to chime in with his comments. Then, Liberty Media, another billboard company, filed suit challenging the latest moratorium. And last week, of course, the city effectively re-adopted the ban, subject to the decision in World Wide Rush. With regard to on-premise signs, the city's existing ordinance has not changed yet; although, as noted, we continue to battle the proposed revisions.