Keeping San Francisco Beautiful – Voters Reject Special Sign District
by National Trust for Historic Preservation on November 6th, 2009Written by Anthony Veerkamp
On Election Day, San Francisco voters soundly rejected an initiative that would have created a Mid-Market Special Sign District where new general advertising signs would be permitted. Proposition D was rejected by 53.88% of voters. In fact, it was the only proposition of five on the ballot that was defeated.
The result reaffirmed San Franciscans’ traditional aversion to billboards. In 2002, when 79.1% of voters supported an initiative that established an ordinance prohibiting new general advertising signs anywhere in the City. San Francisco’s Municipal Code also prohibits all general advertising signs on Market Street downtown.
Proposition D, which was sponsored by Market Street property owners, would have created a special sign district on and near Market Street between 5th and 7th streets where new general advertising signs would not be subject to the City-wide ban on new billboards or the ban on all general advertising signs in the Market Street Special Sign District. Had Prop D passed, just about any sort of sign would have been fair game, including roof signs, wind signs, video signs, rotating signs, wall signs, signs with moving parts, and signs with illumination.
The opposition to Prop D was led by San Francisco Beautiful, which had sponsored the 2002 proposition banning new billboards. While Mid-Market has proven remarkably resistant to revitalization, San Francisco Beautiful rightly pointed out that “We can’t fight blight with blight…the extreme presence of billboards along those two blocks could destroy prospects for fully restoring the whole of Market Street, San Francisco’s grand boulevard, to a world-class standard.”
San Francisco Beautiful also expressed concern over a copy cat effect where private interests throughout the city might attempt to circumvent existing zoning and land-use restrictions through well-funded ballot box campaigns.
Anthony Veerkamp a senior program officer at the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Western Office.
Support the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Donate now.
