Desert Outdoor v. City of Oakland

I. Background

Desert challenges two separate provisions. The first ordi- nance is contained in the Oakland Municipal Code (OMC). The second ordinance is found in the Oakland Planning Code (OPC).

OMC § 150161 seeks to prohibit signs adjacent to freeways, several of which pass through the City. It provides that “[n]o sign shall be erected, constructed, relocated or maintained in the City of Oakland if such sign is designed to have or has the advertising thereon maintained primarily to be viewed from a freeway.” There are certain specified exceptions to this ban: (a) signs limited to identifying the “name of the person, firm or corporation occupying the premises and the type of busi- ness conducted by such person, firm or corporation”; (b) signs limited to the “name of the product manufactured on the premises”; (c) signs “not exceeding six square feet in area [and] appertaining only to the lease, hire, sale, or display of the building premises”; and (d) “time and temperature units.” In addition, the ordinance permits signs “in the M-40 Heavy Industrial Zone as part of a billboard relocation agreement authorized by the City,” subject to limitations. This freeway sign ordinance…