Producer Is Seeking Rewrite of Ban on Billboards

The thicket of billboards blanketing much of Los Angeles is so unpopular that city leaders have barred any new ones.

But what if allowing one more billboard could give hundreds of children from a working-class neighborhood the chance to pursue their dreams of becoming opera singers or actors?

That question is at the heart of a political battle playing out in Pico Union, where an activist turned Hollywood producer wants to open a performing arts academy -- and to help fund it by placing a billboard on the school.

Moctesuma Esparza, 54, who helped organize Los Angeles’ 1968 Chicano student walkouts and whose film credits as a producer include “Selena” and “Gods and Generals,” contends that an academy would provide entree to the arts for Pico Union children who can’t afford private lessons.

“You have to have access to the financial means at a very young age for someone to aspire to be a concert pianist or a violinist,” he said. “There is a fundamental, societal, vested interest in assuring that the largest and fastest-growing population group, which are Latinos, have access.”

Esparza has enlisted the support of politicians who represent Pico Union to gain exemptions from city and state laws that ban billboards like the one he is seeking. But he has met resistance from other politicians who are worried about creating loopholes.

“It very well may be a worthy institution,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents parts of West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. “But I don’t think the people of the city wanted a policy decision to be made on the basis of whether worthy institutions benefited financially from billboards.

“I think the issue is: Can’t we get our views back?”

A measure that would have allowed a billboard on top of the academy -- proposed near the juncture of the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways -- was rejected last year by Gov. Gray Davis, who noted in his veto message that it would preempt city ordinances regulating billboards and bypass neighborhood input.

A new bill, AB 762 by Assemblyman Fabian Nunez, a Los Angeles Democrat who represents Pico Union, would allow the billboard. It is illegal under state law to erect billboards within 660 feet of a landscaped freeway without obtaining a state exemption and permit, according to Ron Beals, assistant chief counsel for Caltrans. A new state law also requires written permission from the affected city or county.

The Nunez bill would allow the academy to have a sign if it complies with city regulations that permit billboards under certain conditions, including establishing a so-called “supplemental-use district.”

The creation of such a district would give the community -- as well as city officials -- a chance to weigh in. A point of contention among city officials is whether a separate variance to the city’s 1986 ban on rooftop signs would also be required.

Davis has not taken a position on the measure. But Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district stretches from Pacific Palisades to Playa del Rey, introduced a resolution this month opposing the Nunez bill, contending that it would preempt the city’s ban on billboards and rooftop signs, slow traffic and contribute to visual clutter along the freeways.

Sign of Compromise

Miscikowski’s opposition may be softening, however. She agreed to delay action on her resolution to give community members time to consider Nunez’s bill. She also suggested in an interview that she might be willing to change her position on the Nunez bill if she received assurances that it would not preempt city laws and that the public approval process would be followed.

Esparza, who has been meeting with residents, said it has never been his intent to bypass the community. At the same time, he added, it should be the community’s decision, not Miscikowski’s.

Billboards “might be ugly for her neighborhood that has the money to get extra funding for school programs,” Esparza said, “but the truth of the matter is, there’s been institutional racism dictating land-use policy for the last 100 years, and this is just a perpetuation of that.”

Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents Pico Union, also said community members should have a say because they are going to have to look at the sign, which he warned could be large and electronic.

Reyes, who began work last year to establish a supplemental-use district, said he is reluctant to complete the process until the Nunez bill clears Davis’ desk.

“I’m dealing with an immigrant, working-class community that has not had the opportunity to defend itself,” Reyes said. “Ask yourself why the freeways are here instead of Brentwood. To me, that is a symbolic gesture of how communities have been treated over the years.”

A disparity also exists, Esparza said, among children who have had early training in the arts and peers who have not. He said his four children all received private lessons while they were growing up -- tutoring that helped three of them enter the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles in East Los Angeles.

Of the roughly 550 students who attend the arts high school, however, only 17% are Latino. A key stumbling block for Latinos, Esparza contends, is that acceptance at the school is based largely on auditions.

“The youngsters who surround the school have not had the benefit of private tutoring and instruction in the arts, which would be required to make them competitive in the audition process,” said Esparza, who sits on the board of trustees of the high school’s foundation.

He said the academy he proposes would base admissions on geography. Priority would be given to students who live within a five-mile radius of the academy’s prospective home, an 80,000-square-foot building in the 1800 block of Oak Street. The three-story building, which according to Esparza is a former Oddfellows lodge, has nine large salons and a grand ballroom.

To obtain financing to cover the $9 million to $11 million he estimates it would take to buy and renovate the building, Esparza said, he must prove that the academy could operate in the black. A billboard, depending on its size and style, he added, could bring in $300,000 to $900,000 a year.

Roles for 900 Students

Such revenue would help cover the cost of providing music, voice, dance and entertainment-business courses for the 900 middle through high school students he hopes to enroll.

“I would have loved a school like this to attend,” said a Pico Union resident and community college student, Guillermo Esparza, who is no relation to the organizer. “This billboard is crucial for the community to get the wheels started.”

The student was among about dozen residents who showed up at City Hall earlier this month to back the billboard plan or request that the public be allowed to ponder it and provide feedback to officials. The extent of support by community leaders remains unclear.

Bert Saavedra, acting chairwoman of the still-forming Pico Union neighborhood council, would like to see the Esparza proposal stay in play -- at least for now. “It’s a creative possibility,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s good or bad.”