Electronic billboards in residential neighborhoods

This electronic billboard popped up at Silver Lake and Effie and is one of a number new ones around the city. Irresponsibly-placed electronic billboards are not only nuisances to residents who have to live with light blaring into their homes, but can be dangerous for neighborhood drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.

Today I introduced two motions that would address the proliferation of electronic billboards in Los Angeles. One motion instructs the City Attorney and Department of Building and Safety to review the terms of a settlement between the City of Los Angeles and major billboard companies that resulted in the city allowing the companies to convert a certain number of traditional billboards to electronic billboards. The settlement agreement allowed the City of Los Angeles to avoid paying potentially millions of dollars to the billboard companies when the courts opined in favor of the billboard companies, which alleged that the city’s billboard regulations limited their freedom of speech. The motion also instructs the City Attorney and Department of Building and Safety to review whether the new billboard is in compliance with the settlement.

The other motion is a resolution that would put the City of Los Angeles officially on record in opposition to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to allow Amber Alert message boards to be used for commercial advertising.