Building Owners Feel Supergraphics Hit
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's enforcement crackdown on supergraphics hits the building owners who sell space for them, and they are feeling picked on.
The L.A. Business Journal has an extended survey of the current supergraphics enforcement scene, and building owner discontent:
The crackdown began in late February, when Trutanich's office filed a lawsuit against 27 sign company executives, building owners and attorneys, alleging that they had posted supergraphic signs without permits....Trutanich then obtained arrest warrants for other sign contractors and building owners in Hollywood.....Earlier this month, Trutanich sent more than 20 cease-and-desist letters to building owners and sign companies with supergraphic signs the City Attorney's Office regards as unpermitted. The letters gave the building owners and sign companies three days to remove the signs or face further legal action, including the confiscation of revenue generated by the supergraphic signs over their history.
One building owner who had traditionally had supergraphics decorated his huge concrete block on the corner of Highland and Santa Monica, Jeff Anthony, told the Business Journal that much of that sign revenue has gone to charity, and that city officials have long praised the tasteful, decorative nature of his building's signage.
City officials insist state law allows them to take supposedly ill-gotten gain from unpermitted supersigns; some in the supergraphics business insist the city's enforcement efforts are unfair and discriminatory.
The L.A. Times earlier this month had details on specific supersigns coming down, and on failed attempts to challenge the city's laws on supergraphics in court.
City of Angles on the beginnings of the new war on supergraphics, back in May 2009.
(Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
