County Considers New Billboard Restrictions

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday instructed county officials to examine whether controls on billboards along scenic highways in the Las Virgenes area should be tightened.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich recommended the study after receiving complaints from area residents and from the City of Agoura Hills about two competing car dealerships that had installed large flashing signs on their lots near the Ventura Freeway and two billboards that were suddenly erected next to the freeway in Calabasas.

City officials and homeowners argue that the clutter of signs mars the beauty of the rolling hills and reduces property values.

“Just as you’re going up into pretty country, it’s just honky-tonk. That’s what is getting people concerned,” said Dave Brown, president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation. “What we are getting on some parts of the freeway is mindless commercialism.”

New billboards are generally outlawed in Los Angeles County, according to John Schwarze, the Department of Regional Planning’s zoning administrator. But eliminating existing ones is almost impossible because of state laws that protect the billboard industry, Schwarze said. Local government must compensate the owners of a billboard and the property if it wants to tear down a sign, he said.

“We really need changes in the state law more than we need changes in our ordinances,” Schwarze said.

However, Schwarze said, the Acura and Mitsubishi car dealerships have been notified that their signs cannot flash, because it is illegal.

Fran Pavley, an Agoura Hills councilwoman, said the county should tighten its ordinances to conform with rigid sign controls adopted by Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks. For instance, Pavely said, Agoura Hills would never have allowed the car dealerships to install flashing signs.

Schwarze said the Board of Supervisors could decide to eliminate existing loopholes and totally ban large and small billboards in the Las Virgenes area. This has been done in certain parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

Antonovich asked regional planners to finish its report in six months, but Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who instituted the billboard crackdown in the San Gabriel Valley, got the deadline shortened to 60 days.

Referring to the Ventura Freeway, Schabarum said: “Every time you drive through that scenic corridor, it’s the pits.”

Historically, billboards have been a controversial topic in the northwest section of the county. Several years ago, so-called “billboard vigilantes” used chain saws to cut down signs, but were foiled by advertisers who fortified their poles with steel.

“When we take surveys, that’s one of the No. 1 things people want--the billboards taken down,” said Agoura Hills Mayor Jack Koenig. “The residents are very anti-billboard.”