LAKEPORT — The Lake County Planning Commission split votes Thursday on two billboards operated by the same company in southern Lakeport, allowing one sign to remain in place while ordering the removal of the second.
La Monica Outdoor Advertising requested five-year extensions for two existing billboards that face Highway 29 just south of the Highway 175 intersection in Lakeport.
The commission denied approval for the first sign in March, but the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) upheld the owner”s appeal in August.
The BOS determined the intent of zoning ordinance amendments made in 2009, which changed operating conditions for billboards in the county, was not to disallow existing signs deemed to be in appropriate locations.
The billboard, located at 131 Soda Bay Road with one side advertising Konocti Vista Casino, is in an industrial area roughly 500 feet outside the City of Lakeport sphere of influence (SOI).
The extension request came back to the commission Thursday because planning staff recommended a new permit condition requiring the removal or redirecting of sign lighting.
The commission voted 4-1 to grant the extension, allowing the billboard to remain up for another five years.
District 4 Commissioner Cliff Swetnam dissented, continuing his steadfast opposition to billboards.
“I think this is a distraction to the driving public,” he said.
La Monica operates another sign approximately 900 feet south at 255 Soda Bay Road. The billboard currently advertises Lakeside Family Fun and Event Center.
Planning staff recommended the commission deny an extension for that sign, in part because it is on a parcel without an established industrial use and is more than 1,000 feet away from the city”s SOI.
The applicant”s attorney, Andre Ross, urged the commissioners to apply the same logic the supervisors used when deciding on the other billboard and allow the southern sign to stay.
“From a public policy standpoint, a decision to not renew a use permit and to require removal of the subject billboard will impose real, measurable and significant costs on multiple business and property owners,” Ross wrote in a memo to the commission.
In the end, the commission agreed with staff, voting unanimously to deny the La Monica request.
The owner has to remove the sign within 90 days, unless he files an appeal with the BOS.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
