LA businesses and the signs industry have won an important fight against harsh restrictions and fines considered by the City of Los Angeles, reports the Los Angeles Business Journal this morning. The rules were considered by many business owners to be excessive – fines for a violation of a sign measuring 20 x 20 were proposed to be $6,000 for the first violation, $12,000 for the second, and $24,000 for the third.

Instead the city is considering a proposal from business groups and the sign industry to levy a fee on all business owners with sign permits. The money would go to hire more inspectors to target thousands of business signs without permits, writes the Journal.

As we noted in the CNP Signs & Graphics blog months ago, the changes proposed by the City were highly restrictive. “The City of Los Angles wanted outdoor pole signs reduced from 42 feet to 25 feet,” says Roy Flahive of CNP Signs & Graphics, a national sign company located in San Diego, CA. “The signage allotment for a piece of property would have been reduced from 4 sq feet to 1 sq foot, per lineal foot of frontage, and it would have reduced monument signs by half.”

The new fees levied against businesses with legal signs will go toward hiring new inspectors. These inspectors will be targeting the large number of illegal signs in the City. Some estimates of illegal signage are up to 50% of all signs in the incorporated area. Business groups and anti-sign activists can agree on one thing – the illegal signs add to the problem of clutter and excessive ambient light.