Proposal Would Limit Billboard Ads

When a town has only one billboard, any message it displays has an added impact.

The lone outdoor advertising sign above Moorpark Avenue is the subject of a proposed ordinance by Mayor Patrick Hunter, who was irked by a recent pitch for a hemp-based hair-care product that uses a logo that resembles a marijuana leaf.

Marketing such symbols, along with liquor and tobacco ads, is “incompatible with the message we try to send kids through the DARE program,” Hunter said.

At its meeting tonight, the City Council is set to discuss Hunter’s suggestion that the city ban cigarette and alcohol ads within 1,000 feet of areas where minors are known to gather, such as parks, churches, residences and playgrounds.

Hunter said that since the billboard can be seen from two schools, two churches and a park, it would fall under the ordinance’s guidelines.

The mayor said that the city has tried to have the billboard removed, but that it has been unable to reach an agreement with the Ventura County Transportation Commission, which owns the land on which the billboard sits.

A spokeswoman for Eller Media Co., which manages the billboard, said the ordinance would be unnecessary because the company voluntarily prohibited all alcohol and tobacco ads beginning in September.

“It’s odd the city would all of a sudden decide to do this because we have already volunteered to do this,” said Dash Stolarz, a company spokeswoman.