Los Angeles to Ban Mobile Billboards?

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A Los Angeles councilman took steps today to ban mobile billboards, claiming the rolling ads have "reached the level of a serious public nuisance."

"We want to outlaw them," Councilman Dennis Zine said. "They get vandalized, overturned. They create havoc for the community."

In his motion, filed yesterday, Zine asked the City Attorney and officials in the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to analyze the legality of a ban on mobile billboards, and present a draft ordinance.

Mobile billboards, typically used to advertise alcohol and strip clubs, are trucks or vans that carry large ads about the size of regular billboards.

Zine said some are parked on streets for days and are a source of blight, reduce space for public parking, and present a hazard for drivers and pedestrians.

"The people who control (mobile billboards) charge, I think, $700 a month. That's what they get in revenue, but it's a real intrusion upon the neighborhoods," Zine said.

Previous attempts to regulate or prohibit mobile billboards have been met with legal challenges. Advertisers claimed the city must give their drivers advance notice of any ban, but that could entail posting warning signs on every entrance point to the city, which would be expensive and further add to visual blight.

Zine hopes a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will clarify matters. He said that, in litigation between the city and Lone Star Security and Video, "the court effectively upheld the city's practice of towing vehicles or trailers that have been immobile for 72 hours on the street, without notice."

Zine thinks the ruling may establish a precedent that would enable the city to enforce other parking restrictions.

Last month, the City Council banned new digital billboards and supergraphics across the city. It also prohibited commercial signs that are visible from freeways, and the conversion of existing billboards to digital displays.