A real estate company that has secured $28 million in taxpayer subsidies from the city of Los Angeles has agreed to take down five unpermitted supergraphics, or vinyl images, from the sides of buildings in Hollywood.
The Times reported last month that CIM Group had failed to follow through on a promise to remove two rooftop billboards from a building at 1800 N. Highland Ave. -- and had in fact, added three unpermitted supergraphics.
The City Council voted in November to allow three supergraphics to go up on CIM's L-shaped building. But after officials discovered that the company had put up six, redevelopment commissioners began calling on the city to stop doing business with CIM unless it removed all unpermitted images.
CIM Group has quickly become a symbol of the city's inability to get a handle on its unpermitted signs, even those placed on buildings whose owners have received millions of dollars in taxpayer support. The multistory images have gone up even as CIM Group seeks permission to erect 11 supergraphic advertisements at Midtown Crossing, a shopping center on Pico Boulevard in Mid-City.
Faced with a growing backlash, CIM Group wrote Council President Eric Garcetti on Feb. 27 agreeing to take down the supergraphics. The company said it believed in "good faith" that the images were legal when they were installed.
"Given the city's position . . . and the fact that we believe it to be of paramount importance to cooperate with you and your colleagues, CIM is removing these three signs as well as two additional signs in Hollywood [on other buildings] in order to avoid any further distraction or potential disagreement created by these signs," the company wrote.
CIM's explanation did not satisfy redevelopment commissioner Madeline Janis.
"Given their testimony in [redevelopment] board meetings, given the agreement that they signed . . . there is no way they could have thought that what they did is legal," she said. "So that is not a credible statement."
In a brief written statement Friday, CIM Group said that it "has been and continues to remove signs" as requested by the city. Redevelopment officials plan to issue notices informing owners of up to 20 Hollywood properties that their supergraphics appear to violate the redevelopment agency's sign rules.
Furthermore, the agency plans to send a letter to CIM, saying it has breached the terms of its sign agreement with the city.
