Op-Ed: Sign rules should stay on message
On Aug. 4, our City Council will consider allowing “electronic message centers” in La Cañada Flintridge. We think meddling with the city’s long-standing ban on these signs will diminish the character of our community and create unnecessary risks for the people who live and work here.
From the day our city was founded, city leaders have preserved the scenic qualities and semirural character of LCF through our ordinances and have resisted attempts to erode the city’s charm. More than two decades ago, the City Council enacted the existing sign ordinance whose specific purpose is to “enhance the physical beauty and business climate within the city; provide for public safety; encourage local shopping; protect property values and work toward preserving and enhancing the overall beauty of the city.”
--
Editor’s Note: (July 31, 3:30 p.m.) The item discussed in the op-ed has been removed from the agenda for the Aug. 4 meeting due to Councilman Dave Spence being absent.
--
In keeping with these principles, and to minimize “advertising clutter,” the city specifically declared that “rotating, moving, scintillating, blinking or flashing illumination signs” and “electronic reader boards of more than 4 square feet of area” are a “nuisance,” “hazardous,” and expressly “prohibited.”
But recently, some members of the council voted to prepare an amendment to the sign ordinance that would reverse these time-honored community principles, despite the fact that such an amendment has not been approved by either the Planning or Design commissions. The anticipated ordinance would allow “Electronic Message Centers (EMC) in excess of 4 square feet” on two properties: St. Francis High School and Flintridge Preparatory School. So far, the advocates of overturning city law haven’t explained what has happened in the past 20 years that electronic signs are no longer a nuisance or hazardous, or why such signs are needed now and on these two specific properties.
In our view, nothing has changed that justifies allowing digital message signs. Rather, there are three reasons why the municipal code should be left as is.
The first is aesthetic. Illuminated message signs that can change messages multiple times an hour — here four times an hour is proposed — don’t enhance and preserve the physical beauty of the city and surely will add to advertising clutter when concentrated at one of the major gateways to LCF. Though these signs are not the same, just drive past LA Live or Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue and decide whether moving toward electronic message signs is the right direction for our city.
Second is safety. There is enough danger avoiding students and other pedestrians in that portion of Foothill as it is. Add to this the undeniable distraction of an electronic message center that, by design, draws motorists’ attention away from the road, and it’s an accident waiting to happen. It is illegal to read text messages while driving and a much larger version of a text message is no less dangerous.
Third is proliferation. You might have snickered at the comparison to Hollywood Boulevard, but the comparison is not that farfetched. Billboard companies are spending millions challenging ordinances that prohibit electronic message boards because changing to digital can increase the revenue on a single billboard by 600%. Opening the door to electronic signs in LCF — no matter how admirable the motive — exposes the city to the potential for expensive litigation (there are at least four commercial billboards in the city) and the spread of such signs. This concern — which doesn’t even reach the consequences of existing businesses, schools or churches feeling that the city denied them comparable rights — is genuine and should be reason enough to leave the sign ordinance alone.
This is an important issue that could have ramifications for years to come and we encourage you to weigh in at the Aug. 4 City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall, 1327 Foothill Blvd.
--
C. DANA HOBART is a lawyer and former member of the Public Works and Traffic Commission.
JON MOLDAFSKY is chairman of the La Cañada Flintridge Design Commission.