The Los Angeles Planning Commission today put off voting for a plan that would regulate all new billboards and commercial signs in the city. The decision was made after a four-hour City Hall meeting in which dozens of anti-clutter activists, sign companies, business owners and lawyers complained that the proposal was fraught with problems and more public comment was needed.

At times the meeting got a little heated and, at one point, Planning

Commissioner Mike Woo alleviated some of the tension by getting a few laughs when he called on a muralist, who was weighing in on the

debate, to write a play called Sign Ordinance: Comedy, Tragedy or

Farce?

Participants on both sides of the debate were relieved by the

postponed vote. Westwood resident Marilyn Cohon said the “voice of the

community

needs to be heard,” while Jeffrey Aran, the California Sign

Association's director of Government Affairs, who presented a

three-minute video on the benefits of signage, said a continuation was

needed to figure out the impact on business owners.

Another

person who welcomed the respite was the Coalition to Ban Billboard

Blight's president, Dennis Hathaway, who had found the process of

public hearings deeply flawed.

“There have been problems in the ordinance from

the beginning, particularly regarding sign districts,” Hathaway emailed the L.A. Weekly. “We would prefer

that the sign district provision be dropped altogether, but short of

that it must include strict protections for residential neighborhoods

from the effects of the digital signage that will most certainly go up

in these districts.”

On January 22, the City planning department (which reports to the City Planning Commission) recommended

banning all digital billboards, large supergraphics and rooftop signs

citywide. However, the report also recommended that the height and size

of commercial business signs be limited. That recommendation enraged

many business groups who argued that the restrictions would negatively

affect business owners and prevent new businesses from opening up.

The planning commission will revisit the issue March 12.

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