Local News in Brief : Temporary Sign-Control Law Extended 6 Months in Encino

Atemporary sign-control law enacted in May to limit the proliferation of billboards along Ventura Boulevard in Encino was extended six months Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council.

Council members voted 12 to 0 for the extension, sought by southern San Fernando Valley Councilman Marvin Braude. The ordinance had been scheduled to expire Jan. 5.

Braude said the extension will give officials time to finish a permanent Encino sign ordinance. A draft of the ordinance is being reviewed by city lawyers and will be scrutinized by a council environmental committee next month.

The billboard crackdown was approved by council May 28 after Encino-area homeowners complained that their community’s 37 large billboards and 1,500 smaller boulevard signs were giving the area a honky-tonk look.

The interim ordinance includes a moratorium on the construction of new billboards. Smaller business signs are allowed under the temporary ordinance on the basis of stores’ frontage along the boulevard, said Cindy Miscikowski, an aide to Braude.