National City Municipal Code Ch. 9.32 Advertising Displays Bordering Freeways

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. "Freeway" means a highway in respect to which the owners of abutting lands have no right to easement of access to or from their abutting lands or in respect to which such owners have only limited or restricted right or easement of access, and which is declared to be such in compliance with the Streets and Highway Code of the state.

D. "Landscaped freeway" means 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.

E. "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.

F. Neither "advertising structure" nor "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;

3. Directional, warning, or information signs or structures required by or authorized by law or by federal, state or municipal authority.

G. "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, sticking, 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.

H. "Visible" means capable of being seen (whether or not legible) without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity.

(Ord. 1140 § 2, 1966)

No advertising displays shall be placed or maintained on property within six hundred sixty feet of a freeway, regardless of the district or zone in which it is located, if:

A. Such sign is designed to have or has the advertising thereon maintained primarily to be viewed from a freeway; or

B. If such advertising displays, because of their location, size, nature or type, constitute or tend to constitute a hazard to the safe and efficient operation of vehicles upon a freeway, or which create a condition which endangers the safety of persons or property thereon.

(Ord. 1140 § 3, 1966)

Any advertising structure or sign which is now, or hereafter may be, in violation of the provisions of Section 9.32.020 shall be removed within three years from the effective date of this chapter or within three years 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 said section or sections have been changed from a freeway to a landscaped freeway, whichever is later.

(Ord. 1140 § 5, 1966)

A. In the event any person, firm or corporation should place any advertising display in violation of the provisions of this chapter, such display is hereby declared a public nuisance and the city attorney shall upon order of the city council bring and prosecute an action in any court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin any such person, firm or corporation from continuing such sign in place.

B. Every person as principal, agent or employee violating any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of an infraction and upon conviction thereof is punishable as prescribed in Section 1.20.010. Such person is guilty of a separate offense for each and every day during any portion of which any violation of this chapter is committed, continued, or permitted by such person and is punishable as herein provided.

The remedies provided herein are cumulative and not exclusive.

(Ord. 1621, 1978; Ord. 1358 § 2 (part), 1973; Ord. 1140 § 6, 1966)