Supervisors OK Ban on Billboards

An 18-month campaign by a La Crescenta man and his supporters to halt construction of large billboards in their semi-rural community has ended in victory.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously created the largest billboard exclusion zone in the county in La Crescenta and Montrose, permanently prohibiting construction of new outdoor advertising signs along Foothill and Ocean View boulevards and Montrose Avenue.

There are nine large signs along a 1.3-mile stretch of Foothill Boulevard, said Dave Cowardin, county staff planner. Those signs will remain but cannot be replaced or moved. All billboards in the isolated, unincorporated island of county territory will eventually be phased out.

The billboard issue was the first taken up by the Crescenta Valley Town Council, formed in March, 1989, in a grass-roots effort by residents to gain a greater say over their community of 20,000.

Councilman Bill Beavers won his first bid for office campaigning against billboards, which he said constitute a visual blight. Beavers this week called the victory “absolutely fantastic for the people.”

He said he will work next to beautify Foothill Boulevard, the community’s main commercial strip.