Agenda - Planning Commission - 02/02/2017

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Zoning Bulletin December 25, 2016 I Volume 10 I Issue 24 (the "D'Egidios") purchased a parcel of property that currently is within the city limits of the City of Santa Clarita (the "City") in the County of Los Angeles (the "County"). Prior to the D'Egidios purchase of the property, and for three years after their purchase pursuant to an easement, the real estate developers from whom the D'Egidios purchased the property managed a billboard on the property to advertise their subdivision across the street. The billboard was nine feet from State Route 14. In 1987, the D'Egidios took over the management of the billboard and obtained an outdoor advertising permit from the Cali- fornia Department of Transportation ("Caltrans"). The D'Egidios then began leasing out the billboard for general commercial advertising. Under County ordinances as they existed in 1987, signs of advertis- ing subdivisions (as the billboard here did until 1987) were allowed to be placed on the subdivision property, oriented to be read from the street or highway, without any restriction as to the distance from the street or highway. (L.A. County Code, §§ 22.08.190 and 22.52.980.) A sign that advertised a business, profession, product, or service that was not offered or sold on the property on which the sign was placed (i.e., an "outdoor advertising sign"), however, could not be placed within 660 feet of the edge of right-of-way of a freeway or scenic highway if the sign was designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on that freeway or highway. (L.A. County Code, §§ 22.08.190 and 22.52.840, subd. (D).) When the City incorporated in 1987, it adopted as the City's ordi- nances all ordinances codified in the Los Angeles County Code. In 1989, the City amended its sign ordinances to require a conditional use permit to erect or maintain any outdoor advertising sign, and to pro- hibit such signs within 1000 feet of the edge of right-of-way of a freeway or scenic highway if the sign was designed to be viewed partially or primarily by persons traveling on the freeway or highway. (Santa Clarita Ord. No. 89-17.) In 2003, the City again amended its sign regulations to provide that outdoor advertising signs were not permitted at all, except that such signs that were lawfully erected before the effective date of the amendment could be lawfully maintained as a legal nonconforming use. (Santa Clarita Ord. No. 03-17.) (See Santa Clarita Municipal Code § 17.51.080.) Then, in 2014, the City passed an ordinance that amended the regulations and required, among other things, the removal within five years of offsite signs that were lawfully erected before November 13, 1990. (Santa Clarita Ord. No. 14-01, amending Santa Clarita Mun. Code, § 17.05.050.) In 2007, the City asserted that the D'Egidios' billboard was illegal because it was not properly permitted. After the parties failed to reach a settlement on the issue, the City sent the D'Egidios a letter advising that the billboard was required to be removed by April 24, 2019. The D'Egidios thereafter filed a legal complaint, asking a court to © 2016 Thomson Reuters 5