Legal News

Signs still blocking out the scenery in LA

By Richard Binder

In a tentative ruling, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins found the city of Los Angeles in contempt for taking enforcement actions against one outdoor advertising company, World Wide Rush LLC, which has 21 supergraphic sites in the city.

The judge indicated that the city improperly violated a court injunction by refusing to allow World Wide Rush to seek permits for new supergraphic signs. Collins issued the injunction last year after ruling that the city's outdoor advertising restrictions were unconstitutional.

Michael McNeilly may have gotten off relatively easy by comparison.  McNeilly's company Sky Tag, which had adorned buildings across the city with supergraphics and gigantic images of the Statue of Liberty, filed legal action against the city contending that he had erected supergraphics at 118 locations before Dec. 26, the date the city's most recent outdoor advertising moratorium took effect. He filed a clarifying statement with the court, saying that only 33 buildings had full-size supergraphics and the remainder had "smaller" supergraphics.

Collins found McNeilly's declarations to be "misleading."

The judge's ruling would prohibit supergraphics at 85 of McNeilly's sites. For the remaining 33 sites, McNeilly must prove to the court that he applied for permits and erected the signs before the city enacted its temporary sign moratorium in December.

Read the full story at the LA Times.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 17, 2009 (boomark / email).