Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal code by amending Subsections 21.54.120.B.2 and 21.54.130.A, and Table 54-1 of Chapter 21.54, all relating to billboards, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Madam Clerk, I think we go back to item two. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. There's no oath required. So I'd like to turn this over to our assistant city manager, Mr. Tom Modica. Thank you, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. Mr. Modica, maybe we can give folks about a minute to. Absolutely. Take our leave. Madam Vice Mayor, can you say something real quick? Yeah. I also want to recognize the presence of my former chief of staff, Ray Polk, up on top over there, who was one of the only Cambodian chief of staff's in the city of Long Beach with the only one. So thank you for being here and your support. Read this article and. Oh. Part of. The conspiracy. Thank you, Mr. America. Thank you, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. The staff report would be given by Amy Beauregard, Director of Development Services. Mr. Mays just told me that there better be a stellar report because he's not expecting any questions. Thank you. Madam Vice Mayor. Members of the city council. Tonight, we're here to give some of you a tutorial on our billboard ordinance and others a refresher on what we've been doing for the last year and a half or so. The city actually two years. The city council adopted a brand new billboard ordinance in June of 2014, and it was a very laborious process to get to that point, but it resulted in some very significant changes to our existing to our previously existing billboard standards. We essentially modernized the code and required that any new billboards require a conditional use permit. We did allow for electronic billboards to be considered in specific places. But as a caveat to that, there was a requirement for taking down existing static billboards in priority order in specific neighborhoods and commercial districts. Clearly, the purpose of the billboard ordinance was to incentivize the removal of the approximately 400 plus nonconforming billboards that exist throughout the city and to allow electronic billboards as a legitimate land use within the city of Long Beach. So what have we been doing since then is we have removed and had installed through a couple of applicants, a number of electronic billboards. There are two double sided electronic billboards currently in operation one on the 710 Freeway near 12th Street and the other one on the 91 freeway right near the 710. We have a another double sided electronic billboard that's approved but not yet constructed. And that would be on a portion of the MTA site that is adjacent to the 710 Freeway. And we have a two single sided billboards that have been conditionally approved, but they do need your concurrence in order to get those approvals. Tonight's request is that we make a change to the existing billboard ordinance that essentially amounts to a half a sentence that would allow us a little bit of flexibility in where we place the electronic billboards within the landscape freeway segments. And if we move forward with that, we have the ability to remove up to 138 static billboards with that half sentence change and potentially more to come in the future. I want to give you an idea of the progress that we've made to date. These are all estimated numbers. We think we have a handle on most of the billboard inventory. But as you probably know, billboards tend to pop up where we least expect them or they've been hidden by trees that get trimmed. And suddenly there's a billboard that we didn't realize was in the inventory. So to the best of our knowledge and with the help of of the majority of the billboard industry, we have been able to determine that there's approximately 500 billboard faces in the city as of 2011. We believe that last year's inventory, we got it down to about 456 and that if we we get your approval tonight on this ordinance amendment, we will actually be able to get that inventory down to approximately 320 billboards throughout the city. We also think that there's a pending application that would remove another 36 plus or minus faces. So that would get us down to approximately 284 billboards in the entire city in exchange for allowing a few electronic billboards on certain locations in the freeway. So I want to give you some visuals for what what this billboard program has done for neighborhoods and for corridors. This is right on Artesia Boulevard. You can see that it's a small space, but squarely on the street. And this is what it looks like when it's been removed. This is 2069 Long Beach Boulevard. Again, right along the commercial corridor. Notice that it was actually in somebody's front yard. And now the woman sitting on her porch, this one is on the west side, 1400 West Wardlow. It was a very large double faced sign. And this is what it looks like now with just one of the billboards removed. The other one on the far right of the screen was also removed as part of a conversion project. This is my personal favorite. This was a pretty significant billboard at 1320 Anaheim. I used to orient myself that I knew I was coming up to Atlantic because of this billboard. It is now gone. You can see. It went over the entire parking lot. So that's my favorite. So what we ended up doing is working with the billboard industry and many of the manufacturers to craft a very tightly worded ordinance. And it was only with the cooperation of the billboard industry and your cooperation that we were able to get there. However, we do believe that we are more restrictive in state law in one area and that is causing us some challenges in removing additional billboard inventory. If a billboard is freeway oriented and is within 660 feet of a landscaped freeway segment that's defined by Caltrans, it is considered adjacent and is subject to additional restrictions. So essentially, if Caltrans says that a freeway segment is a landscaped freeway segment, regardless of the condition of the landscaping, it cannot have billboards within 660 feet of that landscape segment. This map shows in Gray the landscape freeway segments that are within the city of Long Beach. All of the six or five freeway within the city, the majority, essentially all of the four or five freeway as it traverses our city, the majority of the 710 freeway and the majority of the 91 freeway, all of those are considered landscape freeway segments. I've overlaid that with our zoning classifications on where we would actually allow billboard conversions and it's a very, very small defined area. So normally billboard development is not allowed in these 660 feet of the landscape freeway segments. However, state law allows Caltrans to give billboard companies credits if they've removed billboards somewhere else in the state, either because Caltrans had to acquire it for a street project or they, you know, they just bought the billboard company out for some other reason. When that credit is obtained, then the billboard company can get a Caltrans permit for somewhere else in the state. Unfortunately, our city code is more restrictive than the Outdoor Advertising Act, and the use of these Caltrans credits to allow for electronic billboards is actually prohibited within our code. We believe that the proposed change would recalibrate the city's billboard or an ordinance to match state law, allowing the use of Caltrans credits and very specified, very specific landscape freeway segments in order to do that. Certainly, if you did not have Caltrans credits, you would not be allowed to construct in those landscape freeway segments. All the other criteria within the zoning code would apply. They are restricted to residential properties. They're only allowed in industrial properties. I l I am ig IP and commercial highway and commercial storage zones. So it's a very limited universe of locations that in an electronic billboard can go all. All new electronic billboards would still have to meet the requirements of removal and takedown. And there are still the remaining billboard size, height, shape, directional influences, lighting. All of those restrictions still remain. They're not allowed in residential zones. They're not allowed in park zones. Those would remain still off limits. We believe that the only affected areas. Again would be a very limited area on this 91 freeway and a small area on the four or five freeway. With that, I am open to any questions you might have. I believe the clerk passed out the red line of the ordinance, and you can see that it essentially just lines up our code to the State Outdoor Advertising Act. I'm available for any questions. Thank you, Miss Borough Councilman Mongo. Yes, Miss Bodak, while I think you said it would still comply with the regional blah blah blah, just in plain language, you would not be able to remove billboards elsewhere and then put a billboard in Long Beach. I just want to be clear on that. That that's what the legal easement. Correct. You have to remove existing static billboards within the city of Long Beach and use Caltrans credits in order to be able to construct a electronic billboard within the landscape freeway segment. Wonderful. I think that this is a great move in the right direction. I know that we still have some billboards in places that they we would rather not have them. I'd like to make one modification to the motion. I'd like to include that new freeway oriented billboards shall not be more than 50 feet above the nearest freeway lane. But if my seconder is okay with that, I see a nod. Then I'm very comfortable with the motion and the work you've done. Thank you. May I just suggest that there may be situations where the billboard company might require a variance due to sound walls or other topographic issues related to that. I think that that would go through the COAG process, wouldn't it. It would actually be a variance as well as a. If you do put a specific height limit on it. Are you stating that there are occasions where we where people would apply for them to be higher than 50 feet? Yes. I would be open to that. So 50 feet. And then anything above that would require a. Will you remind me what. It was there? Variance. I wanted to say if you've a variance, that sounds reasonable. Wonderful that I'll take that as my new ocean. Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And so the 91 freeway runs entirely through Council District nine. This has been something that we've. This has been an ordinance that we watched closely for years. And the intent was really to remove blight. A number of blighted billboards, particularly on our corridors. And I remember a number of years back, we literally put up images, some of the same images that we saw today and said, hey, if this ordinance doesn't accomplish our goal of removing these, you know, taking down these blighted billboards, then it didn't make sense. And I think it's safe to say that this has been a success. We've seen just the number of conversions so far to the digital. We haven't received any complaints from the neighbors. We've been very open and transparent, particularly with the neighborhoods adjacent to the 91 about this. And frankly, residents are really excited to see a number of lots that have been on, you know, vacant lots with billboards in them on Atlantic in the middle of our business district, on our on Artesia in the middle of our business district. Those billboards are gone now. And now we can sort of talk about possibilities, community gardens, development, things like that that are possible on these lots. So so I'm very happy with where we are in terms of the changes I'm comfortable with, with what they are based on. I truly believe past experience is the best indicator of future performance if we make these adjustments. I'm really excited to see what can particularly what boards can come down. With respect to the The Lamar Project. So, so I'm going to be in support of this and I'm glad to see that the credits for addition will not be in lieu of local takedowns. So so I'm glad that that was clarified tonight that, you know, we can't use credits, Caltrans credits, in lieu of the formula that we've established as a council. Thank you. Councilmember your anger. Longer take you right there. I want to say that this this whole remake of this ordinance is a step in the right direction. And I think it's something that we need to look at carefully. There is a lot of blight out there with the preponderance of billboards that don't serve a real good function or just a lot of simply old. There's a lot of those billboards that are not maintained and not updated. So I think this is this would be an excellent way of taking care of that and removing some of those billboards that basically serve no purpose other than as blight. In regards to the the amendment, I totally agree with that. I think it's a good it's a good way of being able to not only address the concerns that some communities might have in terms of their height, but also be able to address the the the advertisers who are going to be using those billboards to send their message. So I actually support this amendment. Thank you. Councilwoman Mongo. I just want to thank my colleagues and Ms.. Bodak for the modification and the support. I think that this is a step in the right direction. I think that the less blight we have in our communities, the better. I want to thank the our predecessors who started on this path many years ago, and I think that we're moving in the right direction. So thank you very much. Thank you. There's been a motion and a second. Is there any member of the public that wishes to address Council on hearing item two? Please come forward and state your name. Laurie Angel. I'm pretty familiar with the Billboard situation. I worked on it for years and we made a point of trying to eliminate blight on our landscaped freeways. So now we're going to give that up for the purpose of removing a few more in our neighborhoods. And, you know, there are states that don't even allow billboards on their highways at all. But we're going to give up our landscaped freeways for the purpose of taking them off of our corridors. When, in fact, that may occur. That's all right. You can look at me or you can look down. That's fine. So I'm just concerned that I mean, the other thing the irony here is that people are earning credits by removing billboards on landscaped freeways. And so now they can put billboards on our landscape. Freeways. I mean, what is the logic in that? So I don't really believe in giving up a nice, open, beautiful stretch of freeway for the purpose of accelerating a process that's going to happen anyway over maybe a little bit more time. I just think it's extremely short sighted. We have a nice looking freeway now. It's one of the best ones around. But we're okay. We're just going to give it up. Thank you. So anyone else seeing no further comment? Members, please cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. At this time, we can take up concert calendar items 3 to 14 zero motion. It's been in motion in a second. So any member of the public that wished to address counsel on consent. See members cast your vote.