L.A. Council Panel Backs Citywide Ban on New Billboards

A proposal to ban new billboards in Los Angeles gained ground Tuesday at City Hall, to the delight of Encino homeowners seeking to reduce the sign clutter on Ventura Boulevard in their community.

On a 2-1 vote, the City Council’s Planning and Environment Committee sent the proposal to the full council, where its fate is uncertain. Previous efforts to ban new billboards have been killed by the council after heavy lobbying from the billboard industry, a big contributor to council campaigns.

Although the ban would apply citywide, it has been pushed by Encino homeowners, who want to reduce the number of signs--33 billboards and 1,500 smaller signs--along a 3 1/2-mile stretch of Ventura Boulevard.

But proponents of a ban have been encouraged by political changes, including voter approval in 1986 of a slow-growth initiative and last year’s defeat of council President Pat Russell, an opponent of stronger sign controls, by environmentalist Ruth Galanter.

That change was evident at Tuesday’s committee meeting, where Councilman Marvin Braude’s past efforts to ban new billboards have been stymied. Tuesday, Braude won the support of two new committee members, Galanter and Mike Woo.

The third committee member, chairman Hal Bernson, said he favors stronger controls, but opposes an outright ban.

Billboard firms contend that the existing law, limiting the distance of billboards from each other and residences, works.

Ken Spiker, a lobbyist for four billboard companies, said that since the law went into effect, his clients have taken down 481 billboards and put up only 84 new ones.

But sign control advocates contend that the existing law permits thousands of new billboards to go up. If one is torn down, there is little assurance that a new one will not go on the same site, they say.

“We’re the billboard capital of the world,” said Gerald Silver, president of the Homeowners of Encino. “You ask anyone in our community and they’ll tell you there hasn’t been a significant improvement.”

The proposal does not affect existing billboards. State law prohibits cities from removing existing billboards without compensating the billboard companies.

Besides a prohibition on new billboards, the proposal would strengthen a 1 1/2-year-old city law restricting signs on storefronts.

“If I want to tell people how to find my street, I tell them to look for the 6-foot-high pink rotating foot,” said Bennett Kayser, president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., referring to a pole sign advertising a podiatrist.