Amended  IN  Senate  June 13, 2025
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 03, 2025

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 770

Introduced by Assembly Members Member Mark González and Pacheco
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Elhawary)
(Principal coauthors: Senators Durazo and Smallwood-Cuevas)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Gipson and Wicks) Bryan, Carrillo, Fong, Gipson, Harabedian, Lackey, Lowenthal, McKinnor, Quirk-Silva, Michelle Rodriguez, Schultz, Solache, Wicks, and Zbur)
(Coauthors: Senators Archuleta, Pérez, Strickland, and Umberg)

February 18, 2025

An act to add Section 5208.3 to amend Section 5272.5 of, and to add Section 5272.3 to, the Business and Professions Code, relating to outdoor advertising. advertising, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 770, as amended, Mark González. Advertising displays: customary maintenance. convention centers.
(1) The Outdoor Advertising Act, a violation of which is a crime, provides for the regulation by the Department of Transportation of advertising displays, as defined, within view of public highways. The act exempts from its provisions, except from licensing and certain other specified requirements, an advertising display used exclusively either to advertise products, goods, or services sold by persons on the premises of an arena, as defined, on a regular basis, or to advertise products, goods, or services marketed or promoted on the premises of the arena pursuant to a sponsorship marketing plan, as provided.
This bill would exempt from the act, except from those same requirements applicable to an exempted arena advertising display, any advertising display on the premises of a convention center, as defined, within specified geographical boundaries within the City of Los Angeles if specified conditions are met. If an advertising display exempted by the bill is a message center display, the bill would require the owner of the advertising display to promote public service announcements, as specified. By adding to the duties of owners of these advertising displays under the act, thus expanding the scope of the crime of violating the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would give the City of Los Angeles primary responsibility for enforcing its ordinance and these provisions, and would require the city to indemnify the department for all costs incurred for failing to ensure that compliance, as specified. To the extent the bill would create new duties on a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require the owner of an advertising display that is subject to the exemption for a convention center to remove all advertising copy from the advertising display within 60 days of notice from the department that a federal agency has provided notice that the operation of the advertising display will result in the reduction of federal aid highway funds, as specified, unless the city, the owner, and the department have negotiated and determined an appropriate remediation. The bill would impose a $10,000 per day civil fine for failure to remove the advertising copy. The bill would prohibit the department from assuming any liability in connection with the cessation of operation or removal of an advertising display pursuant to these provisions.
The act requires the department, when renegotiating an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration relating to advertising signs, displays, and devices in areas adjacent to federally identified highway systems that specifies the state’s obligations for receipt of unreduced federal aid highway funds under federal law, to include among its priorities support for advertising displays at arenas.
This bill would require the department to also include among those priorities support for advertising displays at convention centers.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that with, regard to certain mandates, no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Outdoor Advertising Act regulates placement of advertising displays adjacent to and within specified distances of highways that are part of the national system of interstate and defense highways and federal-aid highways. The act prohibits limitations on the customary maintenance of a lawfully erected advertising display within the state by any governmental entity without payment of compensation, as specified.

This bill would authorize, as part of customary maintenance, an activity performed for the purpose of maintaining an advertising display with its existing advertising copy area dimensions, including, but not limited to, replacing structural members and using stronger materials, as specified.

Vote: MAJORITY2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NOYES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 5272.3 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:

5272.3.
 (a) With the exception of Article 4 (commencing with Section 5300) and Sections 5400 to 5404, inclusive, this chapter does not apply to any advertising display on the premises of a convention center that is located in the geographic area in the City of Los Angeles bounded by Wilshire Boulevard on the northeast, South Figueroa Street on the southeast, Interstate 10 on the southwest, and State Route 110 on the northwest, if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The convention center has a capacity of 15,000 or more seats.
(2) The total space of the convention center exceeds 700,000 square feet.
(3) The advertising display is either located on the premises of the convention center or authorized by, or in accordance with, an ordinance, including, but not limited to, a specific plan or sign district, adopted by the City of Los Angeles that regulates advertising displays by identifying the specific displays or establishing regulations that include, at a minimum, all of the following:
(A) Number of signs and total signage area allowed.
(B) Maximum individual signage area.
(C) Minimum sign separation.
(D) Illumination restrictions and regulations, including signage refresh rate, scrolling, and brightness.
(E) Illuminated sign hours of operation.
(4) The advertising display does not advertise products, goods, or services related to tobacco, firearms, or sexually explicit material.
(5) If the advertising display is a message center, the owner of the display complies with one of the following conditions:
(A) Makes a message center display within the premises of the convention center available on a space-available basis for use by the department or the Department of the California Highway Patrol for public service messages, including Emergency Alert System (Amber Alert) messages disseminated pursuant to Section 8594 of the Government Code, and messages containing, among other things, reports of commute times, drunk driving awareness messages, reports of accidents of a serious nature, and emergency disaster communications.
(B) Makes a message center display not subject to this section that is under the control of the owner of the advertising display available on a space-available basis for public service messages in a location acceptable to the department and the Department of the California Highway Patrol.
(C) Provides funding to the department for the installation of a message center display to accommodate those public service messages, which may include funding as part of mitigation in connection with the approval of the convention center by the City of Los Angeles.
(b) If an advertising display authorized under subdivision (a) is subject to a notice from the United States Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, or any other applicable federal agency to the state that the operation of that display will result in the reduction of federal aid highway funds provided in Section 131 of Title 23 of the United States Code, the department shall provide a copy of the notice to the City of Los Angeles and the display owner.
(1) In response to the notice, the City of Los Angeles and the display owner may negotiate with the department to determine an appropriate remediation.
(2) The authority for the display under subdivision (a) shall cease and the display owner shall remove all advertising copy from the display within 60 days of when the department provided a copy of the notice unless the City of Los Angeles, the display owner, and the department have determined an appropriate remediation.
(3) Failure to remove the advertising copy as required by paragraph (2) shall result in a civil fine, imposed by the department, of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per day until the advertising copy is removed. The department shall not assume any liability in connection with the cessation of operation or removal of an advertising display or advertising copy pursuant to this subdivision.
(c) The City of Los Angeles shall have primary responsibility for ensuring that the displays erected pursuant to this section remain in conformance with all provisions of the ordinance, if applicable, and of this section. If the City of Los Angeles fails to ensure that a display remains in conformance with all provisions of the ordinance and of this section, after 30 days of receipt of a written notice from the department, the City of Los Angeles shall hold the department harmless and indemnify the department for all costs incurred by the department to ensure compliance with the ordinance and this section or to defend actions challenging the adoption of the ordinance allowing the display.
(d) This chapter does not limit the City of Los Angeles from adopting ordinances prohibiting or further restricting the size, number, or type of advertising displays permitted by this section.
(e) For purposes of this section, “premises of a convention center” means either of the following:
(1) A venue for hosting conventions, conferences, exhibitions, trade shows, meetings, indoor or outdoor sports, concerts, and other large-scale gatherings.
(2) Any development project or district encompassing the venue, adjacent to it, or separated from it only by public or private rights-of-way, the boundaries of which have been set by the City of Los Angeles. The development project or district must be contiguous and may not extend more than 1,000 feet beyond the convention center structure or any structure physically connected to the convention center structure.

SEC. 2.

 Section 5272.5 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

5272.5.
 The Department shall, when renegotiating an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration on the state’s obligations pursuant to the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 (23 U.S.C. Sec. 131), include among its priorities support for advertising displays at arenas, as described in Section 5272. 5272, and convention centers, as described in Section 5272.3.

SEC. 3.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for certain costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district because, in that regard, this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
However, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains other costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.

SEC. 4.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
There is an urgent public health and safety need for economic revitalization in downtown corridors of cities.
SECTION 1.Section 5208.3 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:
5208.3.

“Customary maintenance” means an activity performed on a display for the purpose of maintaining the display with its existing advertising copy area dimensions, including, but not limited to, replacing structural members, such as posts and internal bracing, and using stronger materials, while keeping or reducing the number of posts.