No Digital Billboards in San José
1 City of San Jose
Council Agenda Item 5.1 24-2213
11/19/2024
Comments from: No Digital Billboards in San Jose
Contact: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoBillboardsSJ
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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhWYWzj2bjc
Website: https://www.billboardsno.org/
X: @BillboardsNo
No Digital Billboards in San José
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................2
2.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................3
3.0 Background ................................................................................................................................................4
4.0 Risks Should be Assessed .....................................................................................................................5
5.0 Council Policy 6-4 .....................................................................................................................................6
6.0 Take Down Requirements .......................................................................................................................7
7.0 RFP................................................................................................................................................................8
8.0 Community Input .......................................................................................................................................9
9.0 Energy ........................................................................................................................................................10
10.0 Other Reasons to Oppose Digital Billboards ............................................................................10
11.0 Op-Eds .................................................................................................................................................11
12.0 Articles .................................................................................................................................................13
1.0 Recommendations
NDBSJ urges the Council to not approve the proposed amendments to Council Policy 6-4
NDBSJ urges the Council to table this item and call for a comprehensive review of Policy 6-4 with broad stakeholder input.
NDBSJ urges the Council to not approve the proposed amendments to Council Policy 6-4 and to instead deliberately re-visit and re-write the rules related to take down requirement. Much more detail is needed rather than a feel-good Policy revision.
NDBSJ urges the Council to not approve Airport staff request to proceed with the RFP as currently structured. The RFP should be much more broadly defined with community benefit and San Jose image in mind. An on-premise sign should be an option. Let's not become Anyplace USA welcoming visitors to San Jose with national ads for fast food, cars, and out of town destinations.
No Digital Billboards in San José
3 2.0 Introduction
This document is submitted to the City Council for consideration with City Council Agenda 11-19-24 Item 5.1 24-2213 .
Definition: Off-premise digital billboards advertise products and services not available at that location, and are not to be confused with signs (digital or not) identifying retailers, offices or event venues.
NDBSJ is a coalition of over 900 individuals plus neighborhood associations and environmental and historic preservation organizations, all of whom oppose allowing digital billboards to change the historic character, architectural integrity & natural environment of San José.
1972 – San Jose banned new billboards on public property
1985 – Billboard ban expanded to private property citing economic and beautification benefits.
(1985) “At that time the planning commission did a three year study and determined that an abundance of billboards is "visual blight." City officials said, reducing this kind of conspicuous advertising will improve the overall appearance of the city, and this in turn will encourage economic development." – Mercury News article 1985
(1985) “Planning department officials say the ordinance is designed to encourage the revitalization of downtown and major thoroughfares.” – Mercury News article 1985
(1985) "The ban is an expression of a very strong commitment on the part of the city council to beautify the city" – Gary Schoennauer Director of Planning History
2018 – City of San Jose repealed the billboard sign ban.
2018 to 2024 – City of San Jose promotes the installation of digital billboards on public property despite overwhelming public opposition and litigation risk from private property owners.
No Digital Billboards in San José
4 3.0 Background
This agenda item comes before the City Council from City Staff with two objectives:
• Clean up a previously poorly defined Council Policy 6-4
The repeal of the billboard ban that had been in place for forty years was initiated by special interests. Lobbyists for billboard companies visited City Hall more than sixty times before the public was aware of what was happening.
After convincing some decision makers at City Hall that new billboards would be good for the City, Council Policy 6-4 emerged as a poorly written then hastily modified in real time (live at a Council meeting) policy.
Now, City Staff are attempting to take a poorly written policy and insert revisions that sound good, but when considered in more detail or when assessed more compressively, are really just sound- good talking points vs. substantive or analytically derived good governance initiatives.
Notes below explain why Council Policy 6-4 should not be amended at this time, and instead should be re-visited from the ground up with much more detail and input from a broader range of stakeholders.
• Re-do a failed process
Despite the Airport Commission twice recommending against approving the previous Phase 1 contract for billboards at the Airport with Clear Channel and NDBSJ and others calling out the problems with the process, the City Council voted to approve the contract in 2022.
Op-ed - Why we voted against San Jose airport digital billboard plans - MercNews - Nov29,2021.pdf - Google Drive
As predicted, the City was sued by Outfront Media and the City lost the case. The City was rebuked for not following the most basic tenets of good government. See the NDBSJ Op-Ed here:
Op-ed: Judge voids airport billboard contract after San Jose failed to follow its own rules, Jan. 9, 2024
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-judge-voids-airport-billboard-contract-after-san-jose-failed- to-follow-its-own-rules/
Now, Airport staff are back for a second time with a new RFP.
NDBSJ asserts that many of the same reasons raised two years ago cautioning why this project should not move forward should again be considered here in round two. We explain more below.
No Digital Billboards in San José
5 4.0 Risks Should be Assessed
• The City Council should understand the risks and long term implications of a decision to allow the first new billboards in San Jose in forty years.
• We can not stress enough how this project should not be considered in isolation. This is not just about two billboards at the airport.
• Do not brush aside warnings that the City will be sued if they allow new billboards on public property but not on private property. This risk is outlined in a billboard industry publication:
Op-Ed: The San Jose Problem, Billboard Insider, Oct. 5, 2018 https://billboardinsider.com/the-san-jose-problem
• If the City proceeds with implementing Phase 1 billboards on public property, common sense, as well as Federal case law, suggests that private property owners should have the same right to install billboards. Why should the City have the right at site A, when private property at site B across the street is prohibited from installing a billboard?
The implication is the city would be in the awkward position of having to take down the newly permitted digitals and pay the billboard company for lost future earnings or revoke the existing ban on new billboards on private property and open up all of San Jose.
• Don't think it can't happen. A naive position that the a few billboards at the airport is not so bad, can easily and rapidly result in billboards lining freeways and others places all across the City in few years. In other words this decision can open up the floodgates for new billboards. The original proposal the City designated Phase 2, called for allowing one hundred digital billboards along freeways.
• Note that a billboard installed in 2023 on an art museum in Miami Florida by Orange Barrel Media immediately created controversy and the City is engaged in a costly and distracting legal quagmire.
• Another risk is contention and disputes about content control. It appears that the City thinks it will have more content control than it may ultimately have. Today the billboard company is the City's "friend". Tomorrow they may be the City's adversary in litigation. And who will monitor and negotiate content for these off-premise signs, especially for constantly changing content?
• The answer here is that all of the risk and unintended consequences can be avoided by the City simply not getting into the billboard business.
• SJC staff should be happy with advertising inside Airport buildings without jeopardizing the environment of the entire City by insisting on installing giant digital billboards around the perimeter of the Airport.
No Digital Billboards in San José
6 5.0 Council Policy 6-4
The first question all Council members should ask is: Why do we have Council Policy 6-4 at all?
NDBSJ asserts that that any rules that relate to digital billboards should not be carved out by Council Policy 6-4 but should be codified into Municipal Code, which has extensive definitions of all aspects of sign rules.
Furthermore, we contend that Council Policy 6-4 has fundamental flaws that can not be mitigated by the simplified high level revisions proposed by this agenda item.
NDBSJ urges the Council to not approve the proposed amendments to Council Policy 6-4
NDBSJ urges the Council to table this item and call for a comprehensive review of Policy 6-4 with broad stakeholder input.
No Digital Billboards in San José
7 6.0 Take Down Requirements
Council Policy 6-4 includes a provision that for every new digital billboard installed a number of existing static billboards would be removed. This is not a benevolent gesture from billboard companies acting as community partners. It is all about billboard companies willing to trade away low revenue billboards for higher profit digital billboards.
Simply increasing the "take-down ratio" sounds good but it is a greatly over simplified approach to removing existing static billboards.
• See this NDBSJ Op-Ed showing how the existing simplified take down rules are a sham.
Op-ed: Taking down billboards in San Jose—who benefits?, San Jose Spotlight, Oct. 11, 2022 https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-taking-down-billboards-in-san-jose-who-benefits/
• The Phase 1 contract with Clear Channel proceeded to the point of producing a take down list showing which billboards would be removed if the new billboards were constructed.
• The take down list was designated as the "Clear Channel" list in City documentation. Clear Channel, rather than community or City staff, chose billboards in don't care places for removal. There was no community benefit. Only lop-side benefit to the billboard companies who were allowed to use already blighted or neglected billboards to satisfy the take down requirement, while reaping the benefit of being able to install new highly profitable digital billboards.
• The City of San Jose does not even know how many static billboards are in the City. That data should be known before any policy on billboards is undertaken. NDBSJ estimates there are more than 700 static billboards in the City.
• NDBSJ has pointed out that instead of focusing on new and highly controversial digital billboards as a source of revenue, the City could generate significant revenue by initiating a renewable annual permit processing fee for existing static billboards - as almost all other cities do.
• Even if all Phase 1 digital billboards are installed at downtown and Airport sites, there will still be hundreds of existing billboards in place. It is rich for proponents to act as if taking down a handful of billboard is doing significant public good. It is all performative.
• Each billboard should be scored including parameters like neighborhood negative impact, size, lighting, etc. vs. considering all billboards equal.
• It is inexcusable for the City to reward billboard companies with new opportunities while there are billboards all across the City in blighted condition or constantly covered in graffiti.
How about starting with Code Enforcement and taking down billboards that are known problems?
No Digital Billboards in San José
8 • Staff should make it crystal clear to Council members that Council Policy 6-4 does not apply to the billboards proposed for installation Downtown because an exemption was granted to the applicant Orange Barrel Media. In other words, this is a make policy then ignore the policy situation, and a deceitful bait and switch move.
The reason why there is no-takedown requirement associated with the Downtown billboard project should be explained and questioned. Orange Barrel Media as the applicant bidding on the proposed downtown billboards received an exemption from the take-down requirement even though competitive applicants bidding on the project owned conventional billboards that could have been taken down had not preferential treatment been extended to Orange Barrel.
NDBSJ urges the Council to not approve the proposed amendments to Council Policy 6-4 and to instead deliberately re-visit and re-write the rules related to take down requirement. Much more detail is needed rather than a feel-good Policy revision.
7.0 RFP
NDBSJ urges the Council to not approve Airport staff request to proceed with the RFP as currently structured. Our position is summarized in the graphic below. The RFP should be much more broadly defined with community benefit and San Jose image in mind. An on-premise sign should be an option. Let's not become Anyplace USA welcoming visitors to San Jose with national ads for fast food, cars, and out of town destinations.
No Digital Billboards in San José
9 8.0 Community Input
A reminder to all decision makers is that this is a special interest vs. public interest topic. Residents are not asking Council members for more billboards in San Jose. To the contrary, the Planning Department's survey with more than two thousand respondents showed overwhelming opposition to new digital billboards.
No Digital Billboards in San José
10 9.0 Energy
Including a provision that power for the digital billboards should be provided by San Jose Clean Energy is another feel-good / sound good addition to a policy, but it misses the fundamental problems.
• Giant power hungry billboards, each consuming energy equivalent to about eleven homes would be symbols of the City's disregard for climate change and counter to environmental stewardship policies.
• Electronic billboards are by definition a waste of energy, consuming power just for the sake of advertising
10.0 Other Reasons to Oppose Digital Billboards
• Insignificant Revenue to the City vs. Negative Impacts • Light and Sight Pollution
• Driver Distraction Safety Hazard
• Wildlife Disruption (proposed billboards site are right next to the Guadalupe River Trail) • Local Business Does Not Benefit as a majority of digital billboard ads are for national products and services and not for local or small business. • Billboards are unsolicited commercial messages for which there is no off switch.
No Digital Billboards in San José
11 11.0 Op-Eds
1. The Last Thing San Jose Needs is More Billboards, Mercury News, August 12, 2020 https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/12/opinion-the-last-thing-san-jose-needs-is- more-billboards/
2. Op-Ed: Is San Jose Ready for as Many as 112 Digital Billboards?, San Jose Inside, Jan. 6, 2021
https://www.sanjoseinside.com/opinion/op-ed-is-san-jose-ready-for-as-many-as-112- digital-billboards/
3. Levitt: Electronic billboards may work for Denver but they should not define San Jose, San Jose Spotlight, February 16, 2021
https://sanjosespotlight.com/levitt-electronic-billboards-may-work-for-denver-but-they- should-not-define-san-jose/
4. Op-ed: San Jose allowing 22 digital billboards without environmental review, San Jose Spotlight, June 26, 2021
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-san-jose-allowing-22-digital-billboards-without- environmental-review/
5. Digital Billboards in San Jose? It’s Worse Than You Think, Mercury News, July 9, 2021/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/09/opinion-digital-billboards-in-san-jose-its- worse-than-you-think/
6. Should a ‘Vibrant Downtown’ San Jose Include Gawdy Digital Billboards?, San Jose Inside, July 26, 2021
https://www.sanjoseinside.com/opinion/should-a-vibrant-downtown-san-jose-include- gawdy-digital-billboards/
7. Op-ed: Airport Commission should not rubber stamp digital billboards at SJC, San Jose Spotlight, Sept. 28, 2021
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-airport-commission-should-not-rubber-stamp-digital- billboards-at-sjc/
8. Op-ed: Airport Violates City Rules When It Comes to Digital Billboards, San Jose Inside, Oct. 14, 2021
https://www.sanjoseinside.com/opinion/airport-violates-city-rules-when-it-comes-to- digital-billboards/
9. Op-ed: San Jose Airport Commission to City Council—say no to digital billboards, San Jose Spotlight, Nov. 26, 2021
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-san-jose-airport-commission-to-city-council-say-no-to- digital-billboards/
10. Op-ed: City staff should not be in service to the billboard lobby, San Jose Spotlight, Dec. 31, 2021
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-city-staff-should-not-be-in-service-to-the-billboard- lobby/
11. Op-ed: Litigation will be common if San Jose allows digital billboards on public property, San Jose Spotlight, February 11, 2022
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-litigation-will-be-common-if-san-jose-allows-digital- billboards-on-public-property/
No Digital Billboards in San José
12 12. Op-ed: Bring San Jose’s billboard ban back with a ballot measure, San Jose Spotlight, June 6, 2022,
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-bring-san-joses-billboard-ban-back-with-a-ballot- measure/
13. Op-ed: Taking down billboards in San Jose—who benefits?, San Jose Spotlight, Oct. 11, 2022
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-taking-down-billboards-in-san-jose-who-benefits/
14. Op-ed: The Billboard Issue Is About A Lot More Than Billboards, San Jose Inside, Oct. 28, 2022
https://www.sanjoseinside.com/opinion/the-billboard-issue-is-about-a-lot-more-than- billboards/
15. Op-ed: Public Records Act enforcement needed more than ever, San Jose Spotlight, Jan. 31, 2023
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-public-records-act-enforcement-needed-more-than- ever/
16. Op-ed: Judge voids airport billboard contract after San Jose failed to follow its own rules, Jan. 9, 2024
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-judge-voids-airport-billboard-contract-after-san-jose- failed-to-follow-its-own-rules/
17. Op-ed: San Jose reveals revenue estimates for digital billboards — and it’s not much, June 14, 2024
https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-san-jose-reveals-revenue-estimates-for-digital- billboards-and-its-not-much/
18. Op-ed: Billboard environmental impact reports are a sham, November 12, 2024 Op-ed: Billboard environmental impact reports are a sham - San José Spotlight (sanjosespotlight.com)
No Digital Billboards in San José
13 12.0 Articles
San Jose gets sued for ignoring its billboard rules, San Jose Spotlight, Aug. 12, 2022, https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-gets-sued-for-ignoring-its-billboard-rules/
San Jose officials squash airport billboard proposal, San Jose Spotlight, June 14, 2022 https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-officials-squash-mineta-international-airport-digital- billboard-sign-proposal-sjc/
San Jose should nix plan to build 2 new billboards, Editorial, Mercury News, Feb. 15, 2022 https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/15/editorial-keep-san-jose-billboard-ban-in-place/
San Jose may end ban on billboards, Mercury News, Jan., 29, 2022 https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/01/29/this-bay-area-city-is-poised-to-end-a-decades-old- billboard-ban-despite-widespread-objection/
South Bay astronomers fear proposed airport billboards would threaten night viewing, Mercury News, Jan., 25, 2022
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/01/25/south-bay-astronomers-fear-proposed-airport- billboards-would-threaten-night-viewing/
Opinion: Why we voted against San Jose airport digital billboard plans, (Airport Commissioners), Mercury News, Nov. 29, 2021
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/29/opinion-why-we-voted-against-san-jose-airport- digital-billboard-plans/
Survey shows San Jose residents oppose billboards amid city-led plans, San Jose Spotlight, April 13, 2021
https://sanjosespotlight.com/survey-shows-san-jose-residents-oppose-billboards-amid-city-led- plans/
Billboard industry takes on public in digital-sign wars, Mercury News, Feb. 15, 2021 https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02/15/billboard-industry-vs-public-will-who-will-win-the- battle-over-digital-signs-in-san-jose/
The San Jose Problem, Billboard Insider, Oct. 5, 2018
https://billboardinsider.com/the-san-jose-problem