Advertising displays: City of Los Angeles: exemption: ordinance.

Assembly Member Mark González, with principal coauthors Elhawary, Durazo, and Smallwood-Cuevas, advances a measure that would create a city-specific exemption within the state’s outdoor advertising framework for a defined area of Los Angeles, enabling a city ordinance to regulate advertising displays and be certified by the state, while allowing a phased, maximum-capacity approach to authorizing signage with immediate effect as an urgency statute.

Within the exemption area, the Los Angeles ordinance may establish a framework of allowable signage that preserves flexibility in placement, size, and scope so long as displays remain within adopted limits. The ordinance may define a range or maximum signage capacity and permit implementing ordinances to sequence or phase authorization over time, provided total numbers, size, and area stay within certified maximums. Display owners must submit a copy of the Los Angeles ordinance to the state department for certification that minimum requirements—such as the number and total signage area, maximum sign size, spacing, illumination rules, and hours of operation—are met, and no advertising of tobacco, firearms, or sexually explicit materials may occur. A spacing rule requires at least 500 feet between displays on the same freeway side, with exceptions for on-site displays and specific counting rules that exclude such displays from the count.

The measure preserves the right for the city to adopt implementing ordinances that sequence or phase authorization within the certified limits and adds a set of options for message centers: make public service messages available on a space-available basis, provide a display under owner control for public service messages, or fund the department to install a message center for public service messages, including emergency communications. Before placement, the state department must determine that the display will not reduce federal aid or conflict with federal law; if undeterminable, the Federal Highway Administration may be asked to make that determination, after which placement may proceed. The City of Los Angeles holds primary responsibility for ongoing conformance, with a 30-day window for compliance after written notice; failure to enforce can require the city to indemnify the department for enforcement costs or defense.

This measure sits within the broader Outdoor Advertising Act framework, preserving state authority while delegating substantial local regulatory power to Los Angeles through a city-specific exemption conditioned on certification. The authors frame the provisions as addressing an urgent public-health and safety need tied to economic revitalization in downtown corridors, with the act designated as an urgency statute to take effect immediately. The bill’s structure contemplates coordination with federal authorities and outlines roles for the city, the state department, and display owners, alongside questions about how maximum capacity will be defined, how ordinance adoption interacts with existing local plans, and timelines for certification and implementation.