BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING Senator Jim Beall, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 1373 Hearing Date: 6/28/16 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Santiago | |----------+------------------------------------------------------| |Version: |9/2/2015 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Urgency: |Yes |Fiscal: |Yes | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant|Randy Chinn | |: | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Outdoor advertising: City of Los Angeles DIGEST: This bill provides an exemption from regulations of the Outdoor Advertising Act (OAA or Act) for signs allowed by a City of Los Angeles ordinance in relation to the number and location of billboards in an area bounded by West 8th Street on the northeast, South Figueroa Street on the southeast, Interstate 10 on the southwest, and State Route 110 on the northwest, if certain conditions are satisfied. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Establishes the OAA, which regulates the placement of advertising displays adjacent to and within specified distances of highways that are part of the national system of interstate, defense highways, and federal-aid highways. 2)Prohibits any advertising display from being placed or maintained on property adjacent to a section of a freeway that has been landscaped if the advertising display is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on the main-traveled way of the landscaped freeway. 3)Provides for limited exemptions to the prohibition on advertising along system and landscaped freeways, including exemptions for signs advertising the property's sale or lease, signs designating the premises or its owner, and signs AB 1373 (Santiago) Page 2 of ? advertising goods or services manufactured or produced on the property itself. 4)The OAA generally does not apply to on premise advertising displays, which include those advertising the sale of the property upon which it is placed or that advertise the business conducted, services rendered, or goods produced or sold on the property. Local government regulates on premise displays, except for certain safety requirements. 5)Allows a single advertising structure exemption for each of several cities, including an exemption for advertising on street furniture in San Francisco, several billboards situated on the grounds of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex, and structures within the Mid-City Recovery Redevelopment Project Area within Los Angeles. 6)Requires the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to assess penalties for a violation of the OAA, as specified. If an advertising display is placed or maintained in a location that does not conform to the relevant statutes or local ordinances, and is not removed within thirty days of written notice from the department or the city or the county with land use jurisdiction over the property upon which the advertising display is located, a penalty of $10,000 plus $100 for each day the advertising display is placed or maintained after the department sends written notice shall be assessed and the gross revenues received by the violator shall be disgorged. Caltrans may also request recovery of its legal costs. 7)Provides, by contractual agreement, for Caltrans to administer the federal Outdoor Advertising Control (OAC) program, which has restrictions similar to California's OAA program, including maximum sign size, sign spacing, location, illumination, and content. If the state fails to properly administer the federal program, the state shall lose 10% of its federal highway funding. This bill: 1) Provides an exemption from regulations of the OAA for signs allowed by a City of Los Angeles ordinance in relation to the number and location of billboards in an area bounded by West 8th Street on the northeast, South Figueroa Street on the southeast, Interstate 10 on the southwest, and State Route 110 AB 1373 (Santiago) Page 3 of ? on the northwest. 2)Requires the City of Los Angeles ordinance to provide for all of the following: a) Maximum number of signs and total signage allowed b) Maximum individual signage area c) Minimum sign separation d) Illumination restrictions e) Illuminated sign hours of operation 1)Prohibits the advertising display from advertising products, goods, or services related to tobacco, firearms, or sexually explicit material. 2)If the advertising display is subject to notice from the Federal Highway Administration that the operation of the display will result in the reduction of federal highway funds, the authorization of the display shall cease and the owner shall remove all advertising copy within 60 days. 3)This is an urgency bill. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, the purpose of this bill is to allow the use of revenue generating advertising displays within a small area of downtown Los Angeles. The author believes this bill will spur the construction of needed hotels in support of the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Sports and Entertainment District, and the City's financial district. The bill also empowers the City of Los Angeles to control its urban streetscape and interface with the state highways bisecting its urban core, according to the author. 2)Where? The area affected by this bill is described by the author as a small area of downtown Los Angeles known as the Avenue of the Angels. It encompasses an area approximately eight blocks long adjacent to State Route 110 and Interstate 10. This area is a major entertainment and commercial area encompassing the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Stables Center, the Nokia Theatre, and a Marriott hotel. The freeways in this area are among the most heavily traveled in the state, carrying about 20,000 cars per hour. 3)Creating a conflict. This bill creates a conflict between the AB 1373 (Santiago) Page 4 of ? desire of Los Angeles to raise funds from billboards to support local development, and the responsibility of the state to ensure driver safety through the administration of state law and the federal Control OAC program. From the perspective of the city, billboard revenue will be maximized with more signs that attract the attention of drivers, whether through the number of signs, their location, brightness, or attractive content. From the perspective of the state, catchier signs distract drivers, which will lead to more accidents and injury, particularly along a heavily traveled freeway with numerous merges, onramps and off-ramps. 4)Caltrans enforcement. State law contains numerous billboard restrictions intended to prevent compromising driver safety and cluttering the freeway. These include restrictions on the sign size, location, and proximity to similar signs, lighting and content. Many of these provisions are similar to those contained in federal law, originally established in 1965 through the Lady Bird Johnson Highway Beautification Act. In 1968 Caltrans entered into a contractual agreement with the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) to implement and enforce federal law. The penalty for failure to enforce federal law is severe: 10% of federal highway funds with the potential to apply the penalty retroactively. In the face of such penalties it is not surprising that Caltrans is doing a good job upholding its obligations under the contract. In 2012 the FHA reviewed Caltrans' effectiveness and was quite complimentary, specifically noting significant improvement since the prior FHA review. However, the review was not without suggestions for improved enforcement. 5)Permission, not forgiveness. The provision requiring removal of the advertising display if found in violation of the state's contract with FHA (subdivision (b) of the bill) should be revised, as it could easily lead to wasted expenditures and costly litigation. This is because that provision only provides for after-the-fact enforcement. At that point, millions of dollars and months of time will have been spent on billboards which could be unusable if found in violation of federal law by Caltrans or the FHA. The penalties for illegal billboards are significant, including fines, disgorgement of profits, and legal fees. A more cost-effective process would be to obtain preapproval of the signs, from either Caltrans or the FHA, before they are erected. This was the process used in legislation authorizing billboards at the Oakland Coliseum. AB 1373 (Santiago) Page 5 of ? The author and committee may wish to revise the bill to reflect this more cost effective mechanism. 6)Local control, state responsibility. This bill allows Los Angeles to develop its own billboard regulations, while the state retains the responsibility for enforcing the specific provisions of the federal OAC program. This gives Los Angeles some flexibility, though that flexibility is constrained by the federal OAC that restricts billboard spacing, location, size, illumination, and content. The bill provides for Los Angeles to hold Caltrans harmless if the city fails to enforce compliance with the legislation. 7)Whose sign? There have been concerns from the outdoor advertising industry about whether they will have an opportunity to compete to provide the advertising display and/or the content of that display. The author and the industry continue to discuss this issue. 8)Speech. Some opponents raise concerns that the prohibition against advertising firearms is unconstitutional. The language in the bill contains the same content restrictions as SB 31 (Padilla, Chapter 542 of 2013 - authorized advertising displays for products, goods, or services sold at specified arenas) which passed both houses of the Legislature without a "no" vote on either floor; SB 694 (Correa, Chapter 545 of 2013 - authorized advertising displays at public transit terminals), and AB 2339 (Solorio; Chapter 493 of 2008 - authorized advertising displays at publicly owned sports arenas). 9)Waiving committee policy. This committee has a policy not to hear bills which create specific exemptions from the Outdoor Advertising Act. The committee will need to waive its policy to hear this bill. Related Legislation: AB 400 (Alejo; Chapter 693 of 2015) - Required Caltrans, by June 30, 2016, to update its internal policies to allow displays of safety, transportation-related, and voting-related messages on changeable message signs, as defined, subject to approval by the United States Department of Transportation. SB 31 (Padilla; Chapter 542 of 2013) - Allows for local control AB 1373 (Santiago) Page 6 of ? while establishing statewide guidelines for advertising displays at professional sports facilities and arenas. SB 684 (Hill; Chapter 544 of 2013) - Amends the redevelopment agency exemption to the Outdoor Advertising Act to reflect the elimination of redevelopment agencies. SB 190 (Perata; Chapter 54 of 2001) - Exempted from the OAA the prohibition against placing advertising displays adjacent to landscaped freeways, up to five advertising structures or signs (billboards) used to support the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex. Assembly Votes Floor: 1-6 Appropriations: 16-1 G.Org.: 19-1 FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on Wednesday, June 22, 2016.) SUPPORT: Greenland USA Hanjin International Corporation OPPOSITION: California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight Firearms Policy Coalition -- END --