Insider reported back in July 2020 that the City of San Jose was considering allowing up to 90 new digital billboards on private property as well as some smaller signs on public land.  Though the City has had a prohibition of new billboard construction on public and private land, San Jose city leaders were excited about amending the city sign code allowing private property owners to erect free-standing billboard structures on freeway-facing sites, allowing smaller digital billboards on city-owned land in the public right of way and building-mounted signage opportunities in downtown and North San Jose. The program was designed to generate new revenue to the city, reduce the number of billboards in the city through a digital/static swap program ( four static for one digital) and provide a mechanism for communicating important public messaging to city residents.

The Mercury News is reporting that In a surprising reversal, Councilmember Raul Peralez, who for years has been the most vocal proponent of the plan to construct the new LED-illuminated signs in San Jose, has called for the city to “completely halt” the proposal. He also wanted city officials to remove it from the city’s list of top priorities.

Peralez said that his original intent behind allowing new digital signs was to “generate new revenues and improve the quality of life for some of our poorest neighborhoods who live with the status quo of blighted paper billboards.” But in light of the coronavirus pandemic and in response to community feedback, he said he now believes there are bigger and more pressing matters that deserve the city’s attention instead.

As far back as 2018, the City was willing to, and approved an initial phase allow digital signs on 17 city-owned sites that could accommodate up to 22 signs. But since then, no contracts have been awarded for any of those sites.

Insider Take: Apparently, billboard industry representatives had been working with the city to develop this plan and we assume, saw it as a huge opportunity and now an equally huge loss.  Our guess is that, though the City may plan to stop the proposed program, there will be more to this story.  We will continue to monitor and provide updates.

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