Norwalk : Council Allows Billboard
Overruling a Planning Commission recommendation, the City Council voted 3-2 to allow Regency Outdoor Advertising Co. to place a billboard alongside the San Gabriel River Freeway.
The request is the second approved by the council for the company, which already has a billboard erected by the Alondra Boulevard exit. The proposed billboard will be erected near Firestone Boulevard in the railroad right of way.
The billboard, which will be 75 feet high, might have to be moved if the freeway is widened in the future. But a spokesman said the company was willing to take a chance.
Planning Commissioner Charles Fuentes argued against allowing the billboard for aesthetic reasons and because allowing a billboard to be erected in the railroad right of way would set a “dangerous precedent.”
The city prohibits any uses other than those that are railroad-related within rights of way.
But Mayor Bob White--who received a $500 contribution from the company in his losing bid to unseat Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk)--said the billboards “bother nobody.”
Councilwomen Grace Napolitano and Margaret (Peg) Nelson voted against the proposal.
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