§ 18.42.090 — Billboards

A. Intent. 1. The City has had a policy since 1978 (Ordinance No. 1365) to limit the number of outdoor advertising signs (also commonly referred to as “billboards”) in order to improve the quality of urban life for its citizens. It had been determined that billboards, by their very nature, constitute visual clutter and blight to the appearance of the City. It has also been determined that billboards impede traffic safety by unduly distracting motorists and pedestrians, creating traffic hazards, and reducing the effectiveness of signs needed to direct the public.2. 2. In 2016, the City Council approved a Master Community Plan and Comprehensive Sign Program for the CityPlace Santa Clara Project. In adopting the Master Community Plan, the Council made a finding that creating a specific, limited exception to the limitations on billboards for outdoor advertising facing inward into the “City Center” portion of the CityPlace Santa Clara Project, or facing toward Levi’s Stadium on Tasman Drive, would facilitate the City’s objective to create a pedestrian friendly “live, work, and play” environment that would function as a well-defined center of for the Santa Clara community. The City Council further found that creating this specific limited exception did not weaken the direct link between the City’s objectives and its general prohibition of new billboards, and would not denigrate the City’s interests in reducing visual clutter and blight to the appearance of the City, and in promoting traffic safety and reducing traffic hazards. 3. The City reasserts its policy that the obtrusive nature of billboards makes it imperative that the City control the number, size, and location of billboards. With the exception of the billboards authorized pursuant to the Master Community Plan for the CityPlace Santa Clara Project and the Comprehensive Signate Program for that project (the “CityPlace Billboards”), it is the continued position of the Council that billboards are not permitted within the jurisdictional boundaries of the City unless a particular billboard location has been approved. In the absence of a billboard location receiving affirmative approval from the Council, the application shall be denied. 4. It is the Council’s intent to permit no more billboards within the City except for the specific, limited exception for the CityPlace Billboards. The Council intends to restrict the presence of other billboards in the City by limiting the number of billboards other than CityPlace Billboards to those physically in place or for which approvals have been granted as of the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter. Additionally, as billboards are physically removed or destroyed, it is the intent of the Council that the number of billboards will be permanently reduced by that number. As of December 19, 2023, there are 14 billboards physically in place that do not qualify as CityPlace Billboards. There are two signs which have been treated historically as directional signs, and there is one approval for a directional sign yet to be constructed. It is the intent of the Council to encompass all signs which conceivably could be construed as billboards within the definition of billboard other than the CityPlace Billboards. Consequently, the total of 17 billboards is the starting point and ceiling for billboards at the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter. 5. It is the express intent of the Council to permit no further billboards within the City, other than the CityPlace Billboards, and to reduce their number through attrition rather than pay compensation pursuant to the provisions of Article 7 (commencing with Section 5400) of Chapter 2 of Division III of the California Business and Professions Code, which provisions require compensation for billboards removed at governmental insistence. B. General Provisions. All Billboards, other than the CityPlace Billboards, are subject to the following: 1. Existing billboards shall not be relocated on the property. 2. There shall be no moving, rotating, or revolving signs or panels. 3. Signs are to be painted, repaired, backed with lattice when single-faced, and panels aligned as appropriate, and maintained in good condition. 4. The signs and sites of signs are to be maintained in a clean condition, and landscaping is required where such is practical. 5. In no event shall the total of billboards in the entire City exceed 17. 6. There are currently 17 billboards in place or approved for construction. If and when a billboard, either nonconforming or with a permit, is physically destroyed or in a state of disrepair (50 percent or more of its reasonable construction value in either case), dismantled, removed, ceases to be used as a billboard for at least 120 consecutive calendar days, or is in any way terminated for any reason, the maximum number of billboards permitted to be in the City shall be reduced by that extent. C. Outdoor advertising display relocation requirements. 1. Subject to the provisions in SCCC 18.42.090(A) and (B) and pursuant to Section 5412 of the California Business and Professions Code, the City may enter into agreements with advertising display owners to provide for the relocation of outdoor advertising displays. 2. The Council, following the review and recommendation from the Commission, may approve the relocation of advertising displays relocated pursuant to agreements made under this section.