LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING

How do signs shape your environment?

The Los Angeles Department of City Planning is proposing revisions to the citywide sign ordinance. City staff will present the proposed ordinance at a public hearing:

The proposed revisions include:

The purpose of the revisions, as called for by Councilmembers Weiss, Garcetti, Greuel, Rosendahl, Wesson and Reyes, is to "toughen and create easily enforceable time, place, and manner restrictions citywide to protect neighborhoods."

A temporary moratorium on new billboards, digital billboards, and supergraphics is currently in effect. In order to keep neighborhoods protected from these intensive sign types, city staff have been working to develop permanent regulations that the City Council can adopt before the moratorium expires on March 26, 2009.

The proposed revisions and a report describing them will be posted online no later than February 12. To view the proposal and report, visit

Comments are welcome, and may be submitted in person at the hearing on February 19, and/or by e-mailing: planning.codestudies@lacity.org

DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING PROPOSES NEW SIGN ORDINANCE

Many Los Angeles streets are cluttered with signs. Digital billboards are the most intensive sign type.

I attended a citywide alliance meeting last month where this issue was discussed. A billboard commissioner named Marsha Brown said that there were only 3 inspectors to deal with this. She gave her phone number to report any "new" signs that the neighborhoods felt were either illegal or that they thought needed to be reported.

Please call her if you believe this applies to signs in your area.

Speak to her assistants if she's not available, Cora Johnson and D.C. Carter 213 / 482-6800.

I apologize in advance if I've misspelled their names as I was writing this down as she spoke.

Let's help the city attorneys who are working diligently on this issue in our behalf by trying to send a representative from each council to this meeting.

Gary Baratta
The Power of One