Council Backs Plan to Rid City of Illegal Signs

In the battle over visual clutter, the Los Angeles City Council shelved a proposed moratorium on billboards Tuesday but approved a plan to clamp down on illegally posted signs.

Despite the appeal of several homeowners groups that supported the moratorium, the council voted 7 to 6 to send the proposal to a council planning committee for further study.

“The city is really blighted by these signs,” said Norman Pitt, president of the Wonderland Park Homeowners Assn. “In fact, the graffiti is sometimes better than the billboards.”

The delay on the moratorium was a victory for the billboard industry, which was represented at the meeting by nearly a dozen industry executives and lobbyists who have said that the city’s restrictions on billboards are tough enough.

The moratorium was one of several significant matters debated at the meeting at Valley College--the third council meeting in the San Fernando Valley in the past year.

The meeting attracted more than 300 people, some of whom spilled into an adjacent patio.

Unlike previous Valley meetings that have been heavy on ceremonial presentations and speeches, the gathering in Van Nuys focused on several significant community problems.

The council voted to:

* Approve a program to issue up to $50 million in bonds to build public parking structures throughout the city. Under the program, the bonds would be paid off with parking meter revenues collected in council districts throughout the city. One of the first structures to be built will be in Studio City at 12229 Ventura Blvd.

* Approved a plan to install a camera monitoring system at eight problem intersections to photograph motorists who speed through red lights. The photographs will be used to issue a $103 citation, which will be sent to the cars’ registered owners. Councilwoman Laura Chick said she proposed the pilot program in hopes of reducing intersection accidents. “More than 100 people were killed in the San Fernando Valley last year in traffic accidents,” she said. The cameras will be installed at the eight intersections that have had the most accidents in the city.

* Instructed the city attorney to draft a measure to allow sworn employees of the Los Angeles Police Department who face medical or family emergencies to use the sick leave days donated to them by other employees.

* Hire consultants to establish business improvement districts in Studio City, Woodland Hills, Encino, Sherman Oaks and Canoga Park.

But the most emotional debate came during the discussion of the billboards and illegal signs.

Under a motion by Councilman Mike Feuer, which was adopted unanimously, the city will expand a program to remove illegal signs and increase fines to those who post them on telephone poles, public buildings and bus shelters.

Five years ago, the city had 15 workers who tore down illegal signs and imposed $247,000 in fines. But due to budget cutbacks, the city now has only one worker who collects about $60,000 in fines. Under the new plan, the city will establish a program to allow community groups to work with the city to remove signs and collect fines.

During the meeting, Steve Wayne, a Laurel Canyon resident who has fought a 16-year battle against illegal signs, waved a campaign sign for Richard Sybert, a candidate for Congress, saying it had been illegally posted in his neighborhood.

“No one from the city is tearing these down,” he said. “How do you expect to keep this city clean?”

A billboard moratorium proposed by Feuer, who said that billboards cause blight and reduce property values, was met with less agreement than the illegal sign plan.

Billboard industry representatives did not testify Tuesday, but Kimberly Spiker, a lobbyist representing the billboard industry, said in an interview that the city already has a 1986 ordinance to restrict the sizes and distances between billboards.

In addition, she said, the industry has self-imposed rules against advertising tobacco and alcohol within 500 feet of schools, churches and playgrounds.

Feuer’s motion instructed the city attorney to draft a one-year moratorium. But seven council members declined to adopt the motion because the matter had not been reviewed in committee.

“You just don’t ban something without some good hearings and reviews,” said council President John Ferraro, who voted for further committee review.

After the meeting, Feuer said he was not disappointed in the vote because it still provided the public a chance to speak out against billboards.

“I’m quite pleased to have the spotlight put on this issue by the members of the public,” he said. “The billboard lobby is very strong . . . that is why there are so many billboards all over the city. But I think the public is stronger.”