L.A. bans new supergraphics in Hollywood
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban new supergraphic advertisements in Hollywood, after a decade in which dozens of the vinyl signs were placed on the sides of hotels, apartment buildings and office towers.
On a 13-0 vote, the council rewrote its Hollywood sign rules to prohibit new supergraphics while continuing to permit digital wall signs of up to 300 square feet on buildings along certain stretches of Vine Street and Hollywood, Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards.
Despite approval of the ban, as many as 16 supergraphics are still in the works because they have already received city approval, city planner Blake Lamb said. That news disappointed Dennis Hathaway, president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight, which has lobbied council members to stop approving such signs.
“There are going to be more supergraphic signs in Hollywood, and there are going to be more intrusive digital signs in Hollywood,” he said.
City officials said seven supergraphics are slated to be installed on the Blvd. 6200 residential project on Hollywood Boulevard, and two are planned on the Metropolitan Hollywood, a hotel on Sunset just west of the 101 Freeway. The remaining seven are expected on Sunset, Hollywood and Highland Avenue, Lamb said.
The ban on supergraphics was initiated by council President Eric Garcetti, who represents part of Hollywood. Although several projects were shielded from the ban, the changed rules still drew fire from a handful of business groups, including the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Leron Gubler, the chamber’s president and chief executive, said plans for two proposed hotels in Hollywood could be dropped if the developer cannot get rental income from supergraphics. “Most of the [projects] that are in the pipeline, Eric has grandfathered,” said Gubler, referring to the councilman. “But these two projects are not as far along.”
Garcetti said he did not expect the changes to harm Hollywood’s real estate economy, because most new development proposals do not involve supergraphics. “The sky is not going to fall,” he said. “We are going to see Hollywood development through.”
The changes to the Hollywood sign district come about a year after the City Council banned supergraphic advertisements in other parts of the city. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year that the city can ban certain signs on a citywide basis while still allowing them in special sign districts.
