Billboard Insider summarized the case of Clear Channel Outdoor vs Karkif in its April 7^th edition, which among other things raised the question of whether a permit is ordinarily required to remove billboards. And, my friend Richard Hamlin commented in the following day’s edition that the Los Angeles Municipal Code does indeed require a permit to “demolish or remove” (as well as to erect, construct, alter, repair, and move) a “building or structure,” which has been interpreted to include billboards.

This has certainly been my experience as well, and let me put on my City Attorney Hat to explain why. (most readers know that Rothfelder & Falick “swings both ways,” in that in addition to representing the billboard and sign industries, we also are the city attorney for a few municipalities in Texas). Governmental entities, including cities and states, are authorized to enact and enforce land use and other regulations, as long as they are consistent with the “health, safety, and moral welfare of the citizens.”  Most reasonable people would agree that the removal of a billboard- often embedded in a 30 foot deep concrete foundation necessitating the use the cranes, flat bed trucks, and a crew of workers to accomplish the extraction-ought to be regulated to ensure the safety of surrounding persons and property. So,  regulations passed with constitutionally required due process checks and balances of notice, hearing, and citizen input on the billboard removal process would generally be upheld as legal.

It also follows that the government can impose and collect permit and license fees in furtherance of its constitutional regulations. Now, as reported elsewhere in Billboard Insider and in the recently published Rothfelder & Falick on Billboard Law, the government is only allowed to charge permit fees that are “reasonable.” According to the 1994 Texas appellate court case of City of Houston vs Harris County Outdoor Advertising Association, a permit fee is unreasonably excessive if it is “more than reasonably necessary to cover the cost of granting the license and of exercising the proper police regulation.”

In summary, most cities are charging permit fees as part of their regulation of every stage of the billboard erection, operation, and yes, removal, process. But, those fees are required to be reasonable, and not merely another means for raising revenue for the city.