Wanting to prevent the City of Los Angeles from installing street furniture displaying advertising in the Village and on Sunset Boulevard, the Pacific Palisades Community Council voted unanimously last Thursday to pay for legal research. The Council agreed to join the Brentwood Community Council and neighborhood associations in Century City and Westwood, which have hired attorney Beverly Grossman Palmer to discuss strategies for how to legally battle street furniture. The Council voted to contribute $5,000 toward the legal research. Another Palisades organization, P.R.I.D.E, donated $1,000 to the Council for the cause. Brentwood Community Council Chair Wendy-Sue Rosen had asked the Council to contribute to their efforts at the previous Council meeting on June 26. Council Vice Chair Susan Nash, an attorney, will represent the Council during the meetings with Palmer. ‘I think we need to fight this vigorously,’ Council member Mike Stryer said. ‘I think we need to be strong.’ The City and CBS/Decaux signed an agreement in 2001 to install 3,350 bus shelters, newsstands, public toilets and kiosks displaying advertising (mostly of upcoming movies) citywide in the next 20 years. The city receives a guaranteed share of the total profit (about $150 million) from the advertising revenue and uses the money for beautification projects. On Thursday, Guillermo Gonzalez, CBS/Decaux director of street furniture operations, told the Council that his company would like to place a bus shelter on the corner of Via de la Paz and Sunset and two public-amenity kiosks (PAKs), one at Sunset and Castellammare and the other at Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway. ‘We have to be in the [Village],’ Gonzalez said. ‘Some people are for the bus shelters because people take the bus, especially with high gas prices. Some people don’t see any use for the PAKs, so we are willing to take a couple outside the downtown area.’ PAKs are freestanding three-sided or two-sided structures, which have one or two advertising panels and a panel for a local vicinity map, community poster or public-service announcement. Council Chair Richard G. Cohen informed Gonzalez that the Council is concerned that the contract between the city and CBS/Decaux violates the city’s General Plan. Beverly Palmer, an attorney with Strumwasser & Woocher, found that the contract violates the city’s General Plan, which protects scenic highways (such as Sunset Boulevard) and scenic corridors (San Vicente) from advertising signs, as well as Brentwood and Pacific Palisades Specific Plans, which have signage restrictions. ‘We embrace the Specific Plan, and we think it protects our Village and Sunset,’ Cohen said. Lance M. Oishi, L.A. Department of Public Works contract administrator of the coordinated street furniture program, said City Attorney’s Office reviewed the city’s plans and determined that the Specific Plans restrict signage on private property but not on the public right-away. Therefore, the Department of Public Works can decide how sidewalks are used. ‘We recognize that people don’t agree with that,’ Oishi said. ‘But that is where I sit to facilitate the contract.’ Cohen asked if CBS/Decaux would consider locations outside the Specific Plan area, since the Council does not want the proposed bus shelter on the corner of Via de la Paz and Sunset. ‘Your position is that you get to do what you want to,’ Cohen said. ‘But if you want to be friends, we ask that you respect the intent of the Specific Plan. We would like the opportunity to find alternative sites that don’t violate our principles.’ In response, Gonzalez said, ‘We need a bus shelter in the heart of the Village. That’s our position.’ Cohen then asked whether CBS/Decaux would agree in writing to not install any more street-furniture items in the Palisades if the Council agreed to install a bus shelter and two PAKs. Gonzalez replied that he would speak to his boss about the possibility. The Council decided to search for alternative sites that might satisfy CBS/Decaux and the community. To install the street furniture, the contract stipulates that the City Council, Bureau of Street Services and CBS/Decaux can propose sites, Oishi said. Community outreach is done and residents can suggest alternatives to the proposed sites, which will be considered. Each City Council member then decides whether to sign off on the proposed sites for his or her district. In the future, there is a possibility that if a City Council member doesn’t approve enough locations in his or her district to comply with the contract, the entire City Council could vote on where those items will be placed, Oishi said. ‘It’s a proposal that has been discussed,’ he said. ‘It may or may not happen.’ Oishi continued that the city would like to install the street furniture soon in order to start receiving the monetary benefits. Although the money is divided evenly among the Council districts, the furniture is not distributed equally. The street furniture is issued to districts on the basis of need, the city’s obligation under the contract and revenue requirements for the program. Districts 11 and 5 (Westwood, Century City and Sherman Oaks) are expected to install the majority of the street furniture. The City is behind on complying with the contract because of community opposition, Oishi said. The idea was to install all of the street furniture within the first two to five years of the contract, so there would be 15 to 18 years to generate advertising revenue. So far, CBS/Decaux has paid the city about $18 million, but if the city had rolled out the street furniture on schedule, it would have received about $32 million to date, according to a letter from the Office of the City Attorney. ‘We have done our due diligence; this is the third time we’ve come to these meetings, ‘ Oishi said of working with communities to find preferable locations. ‘There is a sense of urgency. We need to move forward to make this program successful.’
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