West Hollywood

The City Council last week reduced the penalty for violating the city’s sign regulations from a misdemeanor to an infraction.

The city temporarily adopted Los Angeles County’s sign regulations last November but is developing its own sign ordinance. In the interim, said city spokeswoman Helen Goss, the council voted unanimously last Thursday to lessen the severity of the penalties in the county law.

Under the new penalty provisions, Goss said, a first infraction would result in a $25 fine. A second infraction within the same year of the first infraction would cost $50. A third infraction would cost $75 and a fourth would cost $100. Any more than five infractions within a year of the first would cost $250 each.

When infractions occur a year after the first infraction, however, the fines return to the $25 level, Goss said.