| F.3. | CONVERTING EXISTING STATIC TALL WALLS TO DIGITAL SIGNAGE [J. HEILMAN]: |
This item would direct staff to expand the Sunset Specific Plan to include a process for the conversion of existing static tall walls to include digital signage. Tall walls are the large graphics that wrap around some of the tallest buildings on the Sunset Strip.
The main beneficiary of the proposal is the Mani Brothers, owners of the largest tall walls within the City of West Hollywood and a major supporter of Heilman’s political career. The Mani Brothers own 5 properties along Sunset Blvd., 9201 Sunset, 9200 Sunset, 9000 Sunset, 8439 Sunset, and 9220 Sunset.
The crown jewels of the Mani Brothers portfolio along with the tall walls along Sunset are prime property and featured on the company website.
As noted in the staff report “The size and scale of tall walls are larger than other freestanding billboards. For comparison, a standard traditional billboard is approximately 14 feet high by 48 feet wide with a total area of 648 square feet, whereas the minimum required size of a tall wall in West Hollywood is 5,000 square feet.” “The City has over a dozen existing tall walls along the Sunset Strip. Some of the existing tall walls were approved with Development Agreements while others were approved before the Development Agreement process was adopted by the City. ” This item directs Staff to research and evaluate expanding the City’s Sunset Specific Plan.”
The proposal was not born in the head and heart of John Heilman. He did not wake up and say, hmmm, lets make all those static billboards up on Sunset into digital signs. The Mani Brothers asked John Heilman for this benefit, and Heilman responded by bringing the item forward. WEHOonline was tipped off to these requests two months ago but held this story until the item appeared on the agenda.
This process circumvents the rigorous competition that took place in 2019 when the City of West Hollywood launched the Sunset Arts & Advertising Program, (SAAP). There was a competition to replace static billboards with digital ones along the Sunset Strip. The competition included an application process (43 submissions), a review board, and a quality criteria. In 2019, the City Council adopted comprehensive revisions to the chapter of the Sunset Specific Plan titled Sunset Boulevard Off-Site Signage Policy (Sunset Signage Policy) that governs off-site advertising signage on the Sunset Strip. The revision included new standards and guidelines to regulate the distribution, size, location, and operation of new and modified billboards and tall wall signs. The stated goals of the competition was to reimagine advertising on the Sunset Strip by integrating modern billboards into the historic setting of the Sunset Strip, and provide a community benefit that was contextual, creative, and sensitive to community concerns like lighting impacts, cultural resources, and visual impacts.
The staff report states. “Due to their size and orientation perpendicular to Sunset Boulevard, many existing tall walls have greater exposure to residential neighbors than new signs approved under SAAP. ”
Heilman was first elected to the city council in 1984, and served until his defeat in 2015. After Jeffrey Prang’s election to the County Assessor office in 2015, Heilman won a partial term to serve out the balance of Prang’s term. Heilman served until 2020 when he was defeated again. In 2022 Heilman re-ran for a seat on the city council and won a final term. Over the years the Mani Brothers have supported John Heilman with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions along with office space for a number of his campaigns. The Mani Brothers also provided former council member John Duran with an advantageous lease at 9200 Sunset Blvd. while he served in office. Due to the term limits initiative passed in 2013 John Heilman will be unable to seek another term on the city council. His final term ends in November 2026.
The final decision on Heilman’s proposal lies with the city council. It will be an interesting vote. Heilman brought the item forward, Meister will line up against. That leaves the 3 UNITE HERE Local 11 supported candidate Erickson, Byers, and Hang to make the final call. As the staff report also notes: “Current SAAP stakeholders, including property owners, billboard companies, and project representatives, have expressed ongoing concerns that adding digital signage to the existing Sunset Strip billboard market, as well as those already approved through SAAP, will reduce the advertising value of digital billboards and result in decreased revenue for both the City and the billboard operators.”
It’s a battle between old money versus the new money.
WEHOonline has continued to cover the battle over the billboards. One battle after another:
The ‘An Arms Race: The future of billboards on Sunset” here
“Will the Sunset Strip Become a digital billboard ghetto or paradise?” here
Jerome Cleary, a resident who lives just about the Sunset Strip wrote this award winning OpEd: “The Urban Blight of Sunset” here
The Mani Brothers are hideous, vile, fascist, exploitive, greedy, foul, Trump-supporting, CORRUPT intruders on our City and need to GTFO.
What about all the bright Billboards along Santa Monica boulevard? The city was for sale for that. Did anyone forget that Outfront Media put up a full size billboard in Hollywood to support Lindsay Hovarth’s supervisor campaign? Meanwhile, the same sidewalks are blocked by overgrown hedges. The streets smell like urine from dogs and homeless. The post office doubles as a drug Den in the evening. We just spent millions of dollars on a useless parking lot that was only a favor to contractors and the Healthcare in Action company ( I would wager that they are funded through government… Read more »
A well written article that shines light on how these items appear. Always follow the money trail. This council and city are hypocritical when it comes to these unsafe distractions that call for our attention. The finish line keeps moving and adjusting to accommodate the whims of the sign companies and property owners. The most appalling part is that we are to buy into these provide enormous community benefits. When has any resident benefited from these signs?
It’s not about the average resident. It’s about the money the city spends with contractors and vendors. The city needs money to feed that system. That’s the only way that insiders will be able to buy a house in this town. If West Hollywood was serious about safety, we would have better signals at Street crossings. You shouldn’t have to press the button to get the white sign and the countdown. It shows their disingenuousness. The best was the sidewalk being closed on Sunset for three years while they built a luxury office building. Forcing people on the uneven crosswalk… Read more »
As much as I disagree with this proposal, John Heilman has historically tended to favor digital signage and given the economic malaise that has consumed the Sunset Strip, he may believe that creating more opportunities for converting conventional tall walls into digital ones, would be an economic lifeline for property owners on Sunset. This policy will create even more distracted driving on the Strip and by flooding the digital market, may devalue all of the bill boards. I hope the City Council does not adopt this measure.
just what we don’t need… more distractions for drivers who are already distracted by their cell phones, their drinking, their marijuana, and their narcisistic supposition that they are immortal!
and… also what we don’t need…more intrusions of light and noise for the residents who live near the Sunset strip!
while many of us want Sunset to return to its former glory, I really don’t think this is the way to do it!
But then, as it always happens in West Hollywood… the inflow of money always takes precedent over sanity and safety!
John heilman is the queen of corruption