SANTA ANA : Firms Drop Appeals on 9 Billboards

Citing public opposition, two advertising companies seeking to construct nine oversize billboards in the city withdrew their appeal to the City Council just before a public hearing on the matter was to begin Monday night.

Brian Kennedy, president of Regency Outdoor Advertising of Los Angeles, said his company’s decision to drop the appeals was “strictly a business decision.”

“We just chose at this time not to proceed,” Kennedy said.

Jay Kingry, president of J.K. Consulting Services of Arcadia, said he decided to withdraw his appeal after Kennedy did.

“I thought it was the prudent thing to do,” Kingry said, adding that public opposition had a big influence on his decision. “It wasn’t the time or place to put it in.”

The city code limits billboards to 300 square feet. All nine billboards would have been at least twice that size.

The proposed new billboards had been the target of heavy public criticism in recent weeks. A number of neighborhood associations, for example, had written to the council, asking that the billboards be rejected so that other billboard companies would not try to construct similar ones in the city’s residential areas.

The nine proposed billboards would have been set up near the Costa Mesa and Garden Grove freeways. Last November, the city’s Planning Commission rejected the proposal, saying the billboards distracted drivers and hurt the area’s appearance.

According to staff reports, the city has more than 300 off-premise advertising signs. The City Council adopted the billboard size limits in 1987 after residents complained that the large-scale advertisements were being built too close to their neighborhoods.