Chapter 12.16
ADVERTISING DISPLAYS ADJACENT TO LANDSCAPED HIGHWAYS
Sections:
12.16.020 Prohibited displays.
12.16.010 Definitions.
As used in this Chapter, certain terms are defined as follows:
(A) “Advertising display” refers to advertising structures and to signs.
(B) “Advertising structure” refers to a structure of any kind or character erected or maintained for outdoor advertising purposes on which any poster, bill, printing, painting, or other advertisement of any kind whatsoever may be placed, including statuary.
(C) Neither “advertising structure” or “sign,” as used in this chapter, includes:
(1) Official notices issued by a court or public body or officer;
(2) Notices posted by any public officer in performance of a public duty, or by any person in giving legal notice; and
(3) Directional, warning, or information signs or structures required or authorized by law or by Federal, State, or municipal authority.
(D) “Freeway” is deemed to mean a highway in respect to which the owners of abutting lands have no right or easement of access to or from their abutting lands or in respect to which the owners have only limited or restricted right or easement of access, and which is declared to be such in compliance with the Streets and Highways Code of the State.
(E) “Landscaped freeway” is deemed to mean a section or sections of a freeway which is now, or hereafter may be, improved by the planting, at least on one side of the freeway right-of-way, of lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, or other ornamental vegetation which requires reasonable maintenance.
Planting for the purpose of soil erosion control, traffic safety requirements, reduction of fire hazards, or traffic noise abatement shall not change the character of a freeway to a landscaped freeway.
(F) “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.
(G) “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. (Ord. 1614 § 4 (Exh. I), 2023; Ord. 97 § 1, 1966)
12.16.020 Prohibited displays.
No advertising displays shall be placed or maintained on property adjacent to a section of freeway which has been, or hereafter may be, landscaped as defined in PMC 12.16.010, if the advertising display is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on the landscaped section of a freeway. (Ord. 97 § 2, 1966)
12.16.030 Exceptions.
The provisions of PMC § 12.16.020 (Prohibited displays) shall not apply to any of the following listed advertising structures or signs used exclusively:
(A) To advertise the sale or lease of the property on which the advertising display is placed;
(B) To designate the name of the owner or occupant of the premises upon which the advertising display is placed or to identify the premises; or
(C) To advertise the business conducted or goods manufactured or produced, or services rendered upon the property upon which the advertising display is placed. (Ord. 1614 § 4 (Exh. I), 2023; Ord. 97 § 3, 1966)
12.16.040 Removal.
Any advertising structure or sign which is now, or hereafter may be, in violation of the provisions of PMC 12.16.020 shall be removed within three years from the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter or within three years from the date when the project for the landscaping of a section or sections of a freeway have been completed or accepted, and the character of the section or sections have been changed from a freeway to a landscaped freeway, whichever is later. (Ord. 97 § 4, 1966)