By Jorge Casuso

December 22, 2025 -- Spurred by a fiscal crisis, the City Council last week paved the way for as many as 16 digital billboards Downtown that can span 1,000 square feet each and remain in place for 30 years.

The ordinance unanimously approved Tuesday by a 6 to 0 vote marks an abrupt about-face for a traditionally advertising-averse city that has banned new billboards of any size for the past 40 years.

To date, the City has received four applications for seven of the "dynamic, time-based" illuminated signs property owners can now place on corner buildings along the Third Street Promenade and at Santa Monica Place mall.

If all 16 digital displays are installed, the cash-strapped City government could reap as much as $7 million per year in today's dollars, and potentially much more, under the 30-year development agreements.

The ordinance will "advance (the City's) vision of downtown as a cultural, entertainment, and economic center while maintaining standards for quality and consistency of digital displays," City officials said.

Despite the financial windfall, some council members had strong reservations about establishing a "Digital Display District" that could quickly see a saturation of billboards.

Coucilmember Lana Negrete worried the ordinance could turn Downtown Santa Monica into a "mini-Vegas."

"Thirty years is a really long time," Negrrete said. "I don't know where advertising and digital media will be. I just hope we're not regretting this when I'm seventy-five years old."

Several Councilmembers also worried about the content of the ads, although the Council will set guidelines to address prohibited language and offensive content.

Of the seven applications filed so far, four of the development agreements are for billboards at Santa Monica place and three are on the Promenade -- one at Wilshire and two at Arizona Avenue.

Under the ordinance slated to go into effect early next year, the billboards -- which can refresh at a rate of up to once every 12 seconds -- can operate from sunrise to 1 a.m.

Most of the members of the public who weighed in supported the ordinance, which they believe will invigorate the struggling walk street and pump much-needed revenues into the City's coffers.

A study commissioned by the City estimates that "the potential 16 digital displays in the District could generate $19–$27 million in gross annual revenue" in today’s dollars.

Under the agreements, the City would receive a 20 percent share of gross annual revenues or a minimum annual guarantee (MAG)of $500,000 per 1,000-foot display, with smaller billboards paying a proportionate rate based on square footage.

In addition, the City will receive a required one-time contribution payment of $500,000 per display, an amount that will escalate by 3 percent starting on June 30, 2027

Under an amendment proposed by Councilmember Dan Hall and approved in the motion, the first 85 percent of the revenues above $5 million would go to the City's realignment plan to kick-start the Santa Monica's struggling economy.

The next 10 percent would be used to repay the City's Housing Trust Fund that has been tapped to help pay for legal settlements, 5 percent would go towards "reinvigorating efforts Downtown" and the final 5 percent to support a new "moving video art program."

Despite the economic benefits, two former Santa Monica mayors expressed their strong concerns about the program.

Denny Zane, who was a leading player in the creation of the Promenade nearly four decades ago, said he regretted "the precipitous way it is happening" and called the 30-year agreements "unwise."

Most residents he has talked to, Zane told the Council, are worried the billboards will be "too gaudy and garish and off-putting and will not likely come to the Promenade frequently."

Former mayor and assembly member Richard Bloom wrote a letter to the Council "to encourage you to direct City Staff to step back and engage in a process to update the short and long term master plan for Downtown."

"The adoption of the Staff recommendation will forever change the face of Downtown," wrote Bloom, who was recently appointed to the Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. board.

"At each intersection, the signage, if fully realized, will have a dominating presence," Bloom wrote, noting that his letter did not reflect the views of the Downtown board.

Tuesday's vote comes some two and a half years after the Council unanimously approved state-of-the-art digital wayfinding kiosks that serve as advertising venues ("Advertising Averse Santa Monica Embraces Digital Kiosks," May 16, 2023).

The kiosks -- which will be about 8 feet tall and nearly 4 feet wide -- drew little pushback from residents or the Council, who viewed the prospect of placing as many as 50 kiosks in Santa Monica commercial areas as a financial windfall.

Under the new ordinance, billboards will return to a city that had few, if any, left after the Council in 1985 banned all but those already standing.

By 2009, when digital billboards were sprouting across Los Angeles, Santa Monica was held up as a model that had refused to sell out to corporate interests.

Today, they are billed as a way "to generate revenue through advertising sales" and build "on the City’s vision for a thriving and dynamic Downtown," according to the staff report.