Freeway Billboards Given New Life : Anaheim Revives Proposal to Move Some From Inner City

The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday ordered the city attorney to draw up an ordinance that would allow billboards on some freeways in the city.

Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood voiced strong opposition, contending that such a law would “set Anaheim back 20 years.” The city banned billboards as part of the national beautification program of the mid-1960s.

Council members voted down a proposal to allow billboards along freeways in May, 1984, under opposition from staff members, the Planning Commission and residents.

Regency Outdoor Advertising Inc., a Los Angeles-based billboard firm, approached the council last fall with a proposal, and city staff members countered with a more stringent proposal. After reviewing both Tuesday, the council reversed an earlier position and asked the city attorney to write a new law allowing the freeway billboards based on Regency’s proposal.

Under that proposal, about 4 1/2 miles of land along Anaheim’s three freeways would be open to billboards, said Floyd L. Farano, an attorney representing Regency. Currently, the city has six such signs on land that once belonged to the county and was annexed to the city, said Annika M. Santalahti, assistant zoning director.

‘A Really Incredible Thing’

“It is rather a really incredible thing that one year after it was called a dead issue,” the subject of billboards had resurfaced, Councilwoman Kaywood said Tuesday, referring to Mayor Don Roth’s comments during a July 27, 1984, meeting.

On that date, Roth said: “I don’t see it coming back in the time that I am on this City Council. I think . . . that the issue is dead.”

On Tuesday, Kaywood requested, as she has in the past, that the issue be put to the voters this summer. But the suggestion died for lack of support.

Anaheim removed 30 or so freeway billboards in the 1960s and in exchange allowed advertising companies to erect billboards along inner-city streets.

“Times change,” Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler said Tuesday, adding that he had received little feedback from residents on the issue. Only two residents addressed the council on the issue Tuesday.

Council members will review the proposed ordinance for possible approval within the next two weeks.

The staff had asked that if inner-city billboards be allowed at all, the council consider reducing the maximum number of signs from eight to two per intersection.

But according to Regency’s proposal, the maximum number of inner-city billboards--now totaling about 135--would be lowered to four per intersection. With a reduction in the maximum number of inner-city billboards allowed, the potential for billboards in the city would be lowered from 324 to 104, Farano said.

The two sides also disagree on how much businesses with billboards should be taxed. Currently, the city receives $100 from a company regardless of the number of billboards it has in the city.

Under the staff’s proposal, freeway billboards would net Anaheim about $60,000 a year and non-freeway billboards would be subject to a tax between $1.50 to $2.50 per square foot, depending on their size. Under Regency’s proposal, the billboards would be subject to a maximum tax of $1 per square foot.