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)
And moving on to hearing item number two. I don't believe an oath is required for this hearing as well. Madam Clerk. Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing and declare ordinance. Amending Chapter 21.54 of the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to the regulation of billboards. Read the first time and lead over for the next regular meeting of the City Council for final reading and accept categorical exemption for the project , which finds that the proposed code amendment is categorically exempt from the provisions of secure underclass. Five. Minor alterations in land use limitations citywide. Thank you. And turn this over to the city attorney. Mayor Garcia, members of the city council. This will be a short staff report. As you know, this item was here last week on May 3rd, primarily to discuss amending the billboard ordinance to allow, in certain instances the use of Caltrans credit in certain landscaped freeway areas. We had extensive council discussion and public comment on that and the consensus the vote among council was to approve that amendment to the ordinance as part of the motion to approve those changes. There was an additional item that was added. And that would be to put a 50 foot. Limit height limit on billboards that are. Adjacent to freeways. That was not the type of change that we could make on the floor. So we did make the change. It essentially involved a change to the table in the billboard ordinance to indicate a height limitation of 50 feet. So the entire ordinance is back. For first reading. That concludes our staff report. Thank you. Without having to go ahead and go to public comments on this hearing, please. Members of the public want to speak. Please come forward. Mayor and council members. My name is Ben Rockwell. I live at 75 West Street here in Long Beach. I would like to say that many billboards in fact, most billboards distract the drivers attention while they're driving, making unsafe for those other people that are riding as passengers in public transit vehicles or otherwise, and making it dangerous for other drivers on the road when these people are distracted and cannot have their own attention on their driving, their destination and what the traffic conditions are ahead. I would like to see as few billboards as possible on our freeways and definitely not the bright electronic billboards as they are an extreme distraction. I want to save lives, not let them get diminished. Thank you. It doesn't make sense. Hi, Laurie Angell. I live at 458 East Platt Street and I was involved pretty much in the first go round at the Billboard ordinance. It was extremely difficult, contentious billboard ordinance. It took a lot of discussion, a lot of public was involved. The billboard people were involved. There were a lot of very difficult issues that were discussed, and one of them had to do with billboards, digital billboards on our landscape freeways. And I thought we had all come to an agreement that that is something that we did not want to have, mainly because what we have in terms of landscaping along the freeways was pretty nice and we didn't want to interfere with that. So the brightness of these billboards is an issue. But then also that effort did win the city an award, a hard fought award, because it was such a difficult thing to come to an agreement about. Now, we're being led to believe that this minor change in this ordinance is is minor, indeed, when in fact, what it's doing is opening up the door to allow digital billboards to be in a place exactly where we did not want them to be. And then also, if you take a look at a table in the item, it says that they can be 500 feet apart. Now, staff will tell you, well, that's just not going to happen because, you know, of the land uses and ownership and this and that. Well, once you open the door, you could possibly have digital billboards every 500 feet down the road. It might not happen for five or ten or 15 years, but eventually you may really regret that you're passing this besides the fact that they use an incredible amount of energy, they use so much energy and generate so much heat that it requires air conditioning. So in terms of being the green Long Beach and we tout the fact that we're energy efficient and we're responsible to the environment, I think it's a terrible idea if they're generating money, that should be for the city that should be spoken about here. But I haven't heard it spoken about. Thanks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Chuck Fowler, North Long Beach. I might point out, as my gentleman did, that in the first go round of the ordinance that currently exists, it was stated by the various proponents of billboards that billboards are not distracting to drivers. If they're not distracting, why have them? You know, it doesn't seem to make sense. I want to point out, too, that the height restriction that was proposed earlier in the last reading is actually an increase in the height. Currently, the ordinance calls for 40 feet, no more than 40 feet high. Now it's being led to up to 50 feet and even higher than that if there are sound walls nearby. I would really want to see that go back down to the 40 feet and one of even more restrictions. Currently, you know, the current ordinance, again, was fought very hard to get. And now we're. Kind of tweaking it a little bit and it's going to create some problems. So please reconsider. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. And Cantrell. And I will repeat some of the things that I wrote to you in a letter. They've been addressed by other people today. Electric billboards are distracting. And if you take your eyes off the road to look at them. Studies show that it is at least 2 seconds that your eyes are off the road. In that 2 seconds, the person in front of you can slam to a halt and you can run into them. I think that putting distractions like this on the freeways is counter to what we were trying to do. When we tell people, Don't use your phone, don't text, don't put on makeup, don't shave while you're driving. And then. We put up electric billboards, as has been stated. It also takes energy. And as I understand it, we're making a deal that we can take the old billboards in the neighborhoods off the streets so that we can put them on the freeways. I don't see why we have to make a deal. Take those billboards off the streets and keep them off the freeways also. Thank you. Next week replace. Tom Stout live in Wrigley Information File. I agree. You know, all we're doing is exchanging one form of light for another one that you see. I mean, if you get all these billboards along the freeways like people are talking about, you know, it's going to look like the Las Vegas strip. You could probably see it from the piece, the space station and a few more years if things go the way they are. So exchanging, it's not a good idea if you're going to make some money. There's probably better ways you could make it than, you know, sort of putting in signs that nobody really wants. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I like to make up a point about my brief hiatus. I get a normal fan of the city council and haven't been here for a long period of time. I don't know if I was really missed because I tended to be a thorn in the side of the city council. But I just wanted to say that and said my time was productive. I've been writing movie reviews for the L.A. Times and I strongly recommend The Jungle Story. It's a static, wonderful film. Having said all that, I'd like to talk a little bit about billboards, which I'm here for first. The remark that we're somehow distracting from the beautiful landscape of the freeway with the billboard remains to be seen. I see very little. A beautiful note of the scenes to be seen around the billboards. Second, the billboards a work of genius. Some of them belong in art galleries. They they tend to be very beautiful for the most part. And third. And most importantly, billboards. Generate revenue for the city. You know, it increases sales. That's why I have them. It's good for the city. It's good for commerce. Another point to be made is that. The notion that Las Vegas is somehow worse. Worse off with billboards is it is not true. Las Vegas and Tokyo are noted for their billboards. The lighting in particular, and really quite beautiful. The lights are meant to be beautifying and not distracting. And my last point is this all the complaints about billboards, it's been it's been presenting a distraction. Well, it is a distraction just because it's so good. People are attentive and want to see billboards. And furthermore. You know, Bill, boy, I work hard. I want to I want to emphasize and they do increase revenue. And the last point to be made is that they're not deleterious. They serve a productive function. They inform like the story of a haiku poem, an insight set in a few words, a few lights, a major comment on commerce and what should be bought. Thank you, sir. See no other public comment. We'll go back to the council. Councilmember Richardson. I made my comments last week, but I just wanted to say congratulations to the whole team on the recognition from the American Planning Association. So this is this is tremendous work and I look forward to the second reading. Thanks. Councilwoman Mongo. I just wanted to ask the staff to reiterate how many billboards will be taken down. Amy Burdick, Director of Development Services. Answer that question. But I believe it's 138. I think it was over 100 for sure. Council member, mayor and Council City Manager Pat West is correct. We do expect 138 billboards to be removed with the ordinance change specifically from one company. We do have potentially another application which would remove another 38 billboards in a different location on a different freeway. 176 billboards, I think, is a remarkable accomplishment for us with this tiny change. And I'm really proud that you brought it to us. I think that it's a great thing. And I know that someone made a comment about find another way to make revenue. This is not a revenue generator for the city. This is a way to remove blight from neighborhoods. And if you take a few moments to look at last week's council meeting, I think that was Bodak did an excellent job showing us the locations in our parks and in our neighborhoods where people lived with that blight before. And I think that this is a great thing. Thank you, Amy, for working so hard on this. And thank you to your team. Thank you. Thank you. There's a motion in a second by Councilmember Richardson and Councilman Mongo. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you. We have a consent calendar. There's a motion and a second public comment on consent. Seeing nonmembers. Please go ahead and cast your vote. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman Gonzales.