Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Council Refuses Permit for Oversize Billboard

In the first test of the city’s stringent new billboard law, the City Council Monday shot down an advertising company’s request to build a 672-square-foot sign alongside the Costa Mesa Freeway.

The council voted, 6-1, to deny Gannett Outdoor Advertising Co.’s request to build the 64-foot-tall billboard on the west side of the freeway between Warner and Edinger avenues. Councilman John Acosta, noting that Gannett submitted plans for the billboard several months before the council adopted the law in September, voted for the company.

The city’s new law bars billboards larger than 300 square feet and illuminated billboards.

Lydia Sullivan, a spokeswoman for Gannett, said the sign would have been “a standard freeway billboard.”

But Councilman Daniel E. Griset, who opposed the company’s request, said “the concept of raising the visual image of this city has struck a chord on this council.”