Barbara Broide got the alert from two neighbors Saturday afternoon: Just one day after Los Angeles' new ban on outdoor signs went into effect, a two-story advertisement was being draped across an office building on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Broide drove to the site and found a crane lifting the tarp-like sign. Then she quizzed one of the workers, demanding to know whether it had been approved by the city's Department of Building and Safety.
"I asked him for his permit, and he didn't respond," said Broide, president of the Westwood South of Santa Monica Homeowners Assn. "We kept taking pictures and they were clearly irritated with us."
Less than a week after the 90-day sign moratorium went into effect, residents of Westwood, Hancock Park and other neighborhoods say they are seeing a blitzkrieg of new signs without permits.
Three billboards have been erected in downtown Los Angeles -- all illegally, according to a complaint filed by the city attorney's office. Meanwhile, at least four supergraphics -- images on vinyl or plastic that are stretched across the sides of low- and high-rise buildings -- have become the subject of investigations by building inspectors.
Three of those supergraphics bear the name of a businessman who has sued the city to keep his images on the sides of another multistory office, generating plenty of publicity along the way.
The council approved the latest sign ban on Dec. 17 to give city lawyers more time to draft new outdoor advertising laws that have a better chance of withstanding legal challenges. Yet this week's rash of neighborhood complaints has only underscored the city's Sisyphean struggle to regulate outdoor signs, which some residents consider a commercial form of urban blight.
Foes of such advertising say that building owners and billboard companies are trying to take advantage of the holiday break, when many city workers -- including building inspectors -- go on vacation.
"Certainly, with reduced [city] crews and people taking time off, I don't think you could find a better time to put up a billboard illegally," said Cindy Chvatal, a Hancock Park resident who saw a supergraphic applied to the east side of a 10-story office building at 4929 Wilshire Blvd.
Still, one high-level official said his agency has enough inspectors to respond to the holiday sign complaints. Four images have gone up without permits since Dec. 25 and each has resulted in an investigation, said Luke Zamperini, principal inspector for the city's building and safety department.
