More Billboards Coming to the Strip

The Sunset Strip will get more billboards as the Planning Commission approved three of to add billboards or alter existing billboards at its Thursday night meeting.

In granting these petitions, the city will receive huge monthly fees thanks to development agreements with each property owner. Those agreements call for each owner to pay the city $10,500 every four weeks for 20 years.

The Grafton Hotel at 8462 Sunset and the Key Club at 9039 Sunset may both erect billboards on their roofs, while the building at 8535 Sunset (across from the old Tiffany Theater) can replace its current billboard.

However, the three-story office building at 8335 Sunset (across from the ) was denied its proposal to replace its existing doubled-sided billboard with a taller v-shaped billboard.

In denying the 8335 Sunset petition with a 6-1 vote (Commissioner Alan Bernstein being the sole dissenter), the commission said the requested 10-foot height increase, from 60 feet to 70 feet, was too much. Concerns were raised about the extra height’s impact on neighbors living in the hills directly behind the building.

Commissioners asked if the property owner was willing to stay at 60 feet, but representatives said 70 feet was needed to make it effective.

Extra height was not an issue with the petition for 8535 Sunset Blvd. That property asked for a 14-foot height increase to 68 feet. The 8535 building is one-story and the hills behind it are much taller, so no homes are directly impacted.

The commission unanimously approved that petition, which would see a wide v-shaped billboard replaced by one with a narrower v-shape. Commissioner Marc Yeber noted the existing billboard was the least effective of all the billboards on the Strip, because of the wide v-shape. Yeber said the new one would be a substantial improvement, more easily seen by drivers.

The Grafton and Key Club petitions to erect billboards were both approved 5-2, with Yeber and Commissioner Lauren Meister voting against it.

Yeber said he was troubled about “adding new signs indiscriminately just because they create additional revenue streams [for the city].” Meister voted against both because the Sunset Specific Plan did not identify either site as a target for additional billboards.

The Sunset Specific Plan, which was adopted in 1996 to guide development along the Sunset Strip, was mentioned frequently during the four-hour meeting. Concerns were raised repeatedly by several commissioners about deviating from the plan that had been so carefully crafted.

The development agreements the property owners entered into with the city allows them to deviate from that plan in exchange for the monthly fees.

Speaking during public comment, longtime resident Jeanne Dobrin called the fees a “bribe.” She called for the city to adhere to the Sunset Specific Plan, saying, “The city is willing to turn itself into a prostitute.”

Meister also expressed concern about the development agreements adding to the perception that the city is for sale.

The development agreements do come with stipulations that guarantee the city gets its money. If a building falls below a 50-percent occupancy rate, the billboard must be removed. This creates incentives for building owners to keep tenants as the city does not want to see buildings go vacant and become a mere “pedestal for a billboard,” as Yeber described it.

At the end of the 20 years, the property owners must renegotiate the development agreement or the billboards must come down.

Although the commission granted three of the four petitions, the City Council must also approve each petition before they can go into effect.

The meeting also saw Roy Huebner sworn into office as the newest commissioner, replacing Barbara Hamaker, who was not reappointed by Mayor John Duran.

Duran was on hand at the start of the meeting to personally swear Huebner in. Huebner previously served as Duran’s appointee to the Public Facilities Commission.