Chapter 11.20
ADVERTISING DISPLAYS ADJACENT TO FREEWAYS
11.20.010 Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter the following words and phrases have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
(1) Neither "advertising structure" nor "sign," as used in this chapter, includes:
(A) Official notices issued by any court or public body or officer;
(B) Notices posted by any public officer in performance of a public duty or by any person in giving legal notice;
(C) Directional, warning or information structures required or authorized by law or by federal, state or municipal authority.
(2) "Advertising display" refers to advertising structures and to signs.
(3) "Advertising structure" refers to a structure of any kind or character erected or maintained for outdoor advertising purposes, upon which any poster, bill printing, painting or other advertisement of any kind whatsoever may be placed, including statuary.
(4) "Freeway" means a highway in respect to which the owners of abutting lands have no right or easement of access to or from abutting lands or in respect to which the owners have only limited or restricted right of easement or access, and which the owners have only limited or restricted right of easement or access, and which is declared to be such in compliance with the Streets and Highways Code.
(5) "Landscaped freeway" means a section or sections of a freeway which is now, or hereafter may be, improved by the planting of at least on one side of the freeway right-of-way of lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers or other ornamental vegetation which shall require reasonable maintenance.
Planting for the purpose of soil erosion control, traffic safety requirements, reduction of fire hazards; or traffic noise abatement, does not change the character of a freeway to a landscaped freeway.
(6) "Sign" refers to any card, cloth, metal, painted or wooden sign of any character, placed for outdoor advertising purposes on or to the ground or any tree, wall, bush, rock, fence, building structure or thing, either publicly or privately owned, other than an advertising structure.
(7) "To place" and any of its variants, as applied to advertising displays, includes the maintaining and the erecting, constructing, posting, painting, printing, tacking, nailing, gluing, stitching, carving, or otherwise fastening, affixing, or making visible, any advertising display on or to the ground or any tree, bush, rock, fence, post, wall, building, structure or thing. (Prior code § 3.5).
11.20.020 Prohibited.
No advertising display shall be placed or maintained on property adjacent to a section of freeway which has been, or hereafter may be, landscaped as defined in Section 11.20.010, if the advertising display is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on such landscaped section of a freeway. (Prior code § 3.6).
11.20.030 Exceptions.
The provisions of Section 11.20.020 do not apply to any of the following listed advertising displays, provided, either, that such displays are less than fifty square feet in area, or that a special permit is secured from the planning commission:
(1) To advertise the sale or lease of the property upon which the advertising display is placed;
(2) To designate the name of the owner or occupant of the premises upon which the advertising display is placed or to identify the premises;
(3) To advertise the business conducted or goods manufactured or produced, or services rendered upon the property upon which the advertising display is placed. (Prior code § 3.7).
11.20.040 Removal.
Any advertising structure or sign which is now, or hereafter shall be, in violation of the provisions of Section 11.20.020 shall be removed within one year from the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter,* or within one year from the date when the project for the landscaping of a section or sections of a freeway shall have been completed or accepted, and the character of such section or sections shall have been changed from a freeway to a landscaped freeway, whichever is later. (Prior code § 3.8).
* The ordinance from which this chapter derives was adopted on August 15, 1960.