Thousand Oaks Municipal Code Art. 1 Freeway Signs

For the purposes of this article, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this article are defined as follows:

(a) “Advertising display” shall mean advertising structures and signs.

(b) “Advertising structure” shall mean 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.

“Advertising structure” shall not include:

(1) Official notices issued by a court or public body or officer;

(2) Notices posted by any public officer in the 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.

(c) “Freeway” shall 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 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 Highways Code of the State.

(d) “Landscaped freeway” shall mean a section of a freeway which is now 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 shall require reasonable maintenance, or a section of freeway which has been designated by the State as a landscaped freeway.

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” shall mean 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.

“Sign” shall not include:

(1) Official notices issued by a court or public body or officer;

(2) Notices posted by any public officer in the 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.

(f) The verb “to place” and any of its variants, as applied to advertising displays, shall include the maintaining and 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.

(§ 1, Ord. 19, as amended by Ord. 185)

No advertising display shall be placed or maintained on property adjacent to or within 660 feet of the right-of-way of any freeway if the advertising display copy is visible from, or is designed to be viewed primarily by persons traveling on, such freeway except as follows:

A subdivision billboard which advertises a development lying within the City and which has no other billboard advertising on the same freeway facing traffic in the same direction within the City may be erected and maintained in the C-1, C-2, M-1, and M-2 zones; provided, however, such subdivision billboard shall meet all the applicable zoning requirements of the zone in which located without the necessity of a variance or special use permit. An agreement shall be signed and a bond posted to guarantee the removal of any such billboard within thirty (30) days after the awarding of a contract to landscape any section of the freeway within five hundred (500) lineal feet along the freeway of such billboard.

For purposes of this section, “subdivision” shall have the meaning set forth in the Subdivision Map Act in the State Government Code.

(§ 2, Ord. 19, as amended by Ord. 186, and § 21, Ord. 1250-NS, eff. January 9, 1996)

Statutory reference:

Subdivision defined, see California

Government Code Sections 66410 et seq.

The provisions of Section 8-9.102 of this article shall not apply to any advertising structures or signs used exclusively as follows:

(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 such premises; and

(c) To advertise the business conducted, goods manufactured or produced, or services rendered upon the property upon which the advertising display is placed.

(§ 3, Ord. 19)

Any advertising structure or sign which is in violation of the provisions of Section 8-9.102 of this article shall be removed on or before May 6, 1965, or within three (3) years from the date when the project for the landscaping of a section of freeway shall have been completed or accepted and the character of such section shall have been changed from a freeway to a landscaped freeway, whichever is later.

(§ 4, Ord. 19)