Anaheim Votes for Billboards Along Freeways

The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday tentatively approved an ordinance that would allow billboards along freeways in the city, reversing a longstanding ban on such signs.

In exchange for allowing billboards along freeway routes, the council voted to reduce the number of allowable inner-city signs at street intersections by 50%, Annika Santalahti, assistant director of the city’s Zoning Department, said.

The ordinance was approved on its first reading by a 3-2 vote, with Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood and Councilman E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr. opposed.

The ordinance does not include a change in how the city taxes billboard companies. They now pay an annual fee of $100 per company, regardless of the number of billboards they own. City Atty. Jack White has said that the council probably will wait to address that issue until after a study of the city’s business license fees is completed.

Some Would Be Permitted

Under the ordinance, which still must receive final council approval, billboards would be permitted on roughly 4 1/2 miles of land along the city’s three main freeways--Santa Ana, Riverside and Orange, Santalahti said. Also, the allowable distance between signs would be reduced from 1,000 to 500 feet.

The city banned freeway billboards as part of the national beautification program in the 1960s, but it allowed six signs to remain on land annexed from the county. At that time, about 30 freeway billboards had to be removed to comply with the ordinance. In exchange, billboard companies were permitted to erect signs at city street intersections.

Since the original ordinance went into effect, however, council members have addressed the subject of freeway billboards several times. In May, 1984, the council voted against freeway billboards. But last September, Regency Outdoor Advertising Inc. approached the council with a new proposal.

Last month, the council instructed the city attorney to write a new billboard law, using the Regency proposal as a guide. The ordinance that passed its first reading Tuesday will be discussed in more detail when it appears on the council agenda for final approval, Santalahti said.

Reduction in Signs

Another part of the ordinance specifies that the allowable number of non-freeway billboards be reduced from eight to four per city street intersection.

The city’s present ordinance allows two non-freeway billboard signs at each corner of an intersection, or a total of eight. The new ordinance reduces the number of allowable signs to one per corner.

Santalahti said that two signs on the corner of an intersection would constitute a non-conforming use under the new ordinance and that the company owning the signs would be prohibited from erecting additional signs in the city until it has met city code requirements. However, she said, the city would enforce the ordinance only after a billboard company applies for another sign permit.

Santalahti said that under the ordinance, all of the five licensed billboard companies in the city would have at least one non-conforming use.