Pomona : Plan to Ease Billboard Rules

The City Council has instructed the Planning Commission to consider an ordinance that would expand the areas where billboards are permitted.

Billboards now are authorized only in manufacturing zones, but a number of billboards are located outside the zones. The proposed ordinance would allow billboard companies to retain their existing signs or relocate them in commercial and manufacturing zones. In addition, new signs would be permitted along freeways in manufacturing and administrative-professional zones.

Mayor Donna Smith has sharply attacked the proposed ordinance submitted by Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant, because it was largely written by a billboard company, the Patrick Media Group.

She said the city should not allow an industry to write its own regulations. In addition, she said, the ordinance would increase the number of billboards, contrary to the wishes of residents who persuaded the council to enact tough billboard restrictions in 1964 and successfully maintained those restrictions through a referendum eight years later.

After action by the Planning Commission, the ordinance will be considered again by the council.