The City Planning Department has released their Draft Ordinance for Metro’s Transportation Communication Network (TCN). This ordinance is intended to amend the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) to allow Metro to implement a TCN, paving the way for them to erect digital display signs on up to 49 Metro-owned parcels throughout the City that are adjacent to certain freeways and major streets.
Here Are the Key Changes to the LAMC:
- Permit the Transportation Communication Network (TCN) Program within a new Sign District on noncontiguous Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) owned parcels in the City.
- Create process for permitting the structures including: ○ Administrative review for freeway adjacent TCN structures and displays where detailed plans and renderings are provided and a project permit compliance process for those proposed along major streets where detailed plans and rendering are not currently available.
- Include development and design standards based on each site location.
- Regulate the location of signs which are in close proximity to highways & major corridors, in addition to requiring the orienting of the sign faces away from adjacent lots and other sensitive uses.
- Establish illumination standards for day and night-time operations, impose hours of operation, and require louver technology built into the sign face that aims to direct visibility to roadways and limit light spillage onto adjacent properties.
- Incorporate a five-year operational review of the TCN structures and digital displays along major streets to determine whether any operational adjustments are warranted based on an analysis of traffic data in the area.
- A sign reduction program aimed at reducing static off-site signs throughout the City that proposes removal of 200 off-site signs on Metro owned lots and a take-down ratio of 3 to 1 existing static signs within a defined radius around each of the proposed TCN structures and digital displays along major streets.