Pomona : Study of Billboards Planned

The City Council has rejected a recommendation that the city conduct a full environmental impact study as part of its proposal to ease billboard regulations.

Instead, council members this week decided that a full study is unnecessary. They ordered staff members instead to come up with a less rigorous environmental checklist to assess the impact of more billboards in the city.

Steven Tarvin, acting development director, had urged the city to explore the environmental impact because new signs could obstruct views and potentially “degrade the quality of the environment.” But Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant said the proposed liberalization of billboard regulations would apply mainly to manufacturing areas and “most of the factories that have been built are not works of art anyway.”

The city is considering an ordinance that would allow up to 15 new billboards to be constructed along freeways and allow existing signs to be relocated in manufacturing zones.