A billboard could soon be coming near you, if San Jose ends decades-long ban

After a decades-long ban on new billboards, San Jose’s skyline could soon be dotted with more of the jumbo signs blaring advertisements.

On Tuesday, the City Council will vote a proposal that could clear the way for allowing billboard advertising at more than a dozen city-owned properties downtown and near the airport.

If the council approves the plan, the vote could mark a major shift in how the city approaches the issue of billboards.

Since 1972, San Jose has prohibited new billboards on city-owned land, and in 1985, leaders passed a citywide ban on new billboards. Billboards, proponents of the ban argued, created visual blight and were targets for graffiti.

But in recent years, as cities from Denver to Detroit have reevaluated their billboard policies, some advocates have suggested that allowing the large-scale advertisements creates an opportunity to generate new revenue and promote public art.

“While we should consider how we might increase commercial vibrancy, bring in additional revenue to the city, and relocate some existing billboards in undesirable locations in our community, we should do so cautiously,” Mayor Sam Liccardo wrote in a recent memo.

In a phone conversation Monday afternoon, Liccardo said he’s in favor of requiring companies interested in putting up new billboards to remove old billboards, particularly in more residential neighborhoods where they are considered less desirable.

Some advertising companies have pushed back at that idea, however.

An Orange Barrel Media executive wrote in a letter to the council, “Regulations or requirements that favor incumbent companies that can remove standardized billboards ensures that legacy billboard companies will have an advantage for the downtown signs, which would deprive the city of the opportunity to select a company most qualified to operate the downtown sites.”

Even as it grapples with whether and how to allow new billboards, some officials are seeking to preserve marketing from San Jose’s past. Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager on Monday said he wants to see an inventory and evaluation of some of San Jose’s old neon signs.

“We’ve already lost the Lou’s Village sign and the original Valley Fair sign,” Yeager said in a statement. “Now, we could potentially lose the signs from Orchard Supply Hardware, Stephen’s Meats, and the Time Deli. These are vital pieces of our history and we need to know how many of them there are and what their condition and legal status is.”

Liccardo, who said there’s a marked difference between the city’s historic signage and new billboards, said he wants to hear from residents before allowing too many billboards to appear. But, he added, limiting the advertisements to city-owned land at first could bring in money for police or libraries, and the city could restrict the types of ads displayed — declining, for instance, to promote tobacco products.

“There is a road ahead here,” Liccardo said, “and I hope to have ample opportunity for public input before the city starts to allow billboards to pop up on privately owned parcels throughout our neighborhoods.”

But four other council members — Raul Peralez, Sylvia Arenas, Don Rocha and Chappie Jones — penned a memo advocating for flexibility around which city-owned sites are suitable for billboards and how the billboards look.

“Large cities throughout the world and the Bay Area have crafted policies to allow the emergence of digital displays in their cities,” they wrote. “San Jose should be equally progressive!”

Share this: Print

View more on The Mercury News