Sneaking kiosks with ads into downtown San Diego

Planning commission okays 50 (with an option to add up to 75)
By Sheila Pell
​They're a step closer to landing on a sidewalk downtown, but not an inch closer to universal love: dozens of eight-foot-tall digital kiosks that threaten to end the city's historic ban on new outdoor advertising.
The Planning Commission last week voted 4-2 to recommend the San Diego City Council amend its sign ordinance to allow for at least 50 digital advertising and wayfinding kiosks downtown - a project the city calls a "pilot."

It's similar to a plan the port rejected in 2018, and some say San Diego, a pioneer in warding off once-static billboards, has become a target of visual advertisers.

"We're sort of a pristine little gem here. You don't see this kind of thing, you don't see more billboards. There are no digital billboards," said Pamela Wilson, the founder of Scenic San Diego, urging the commission to vote no.

The city attorney's office has repeatedly warned that allowing exceptions to the offsite advertising ban, as the proposal does, could undermine the legal defensibility of the sign regulations.

"How is this different from just blowing up the sign ordinance and putting advertising around our city?" Palmer asked. ​Read the full article online at ​SanDiegoReader.com/news/2023/may/02/stringers-sneaking-ads-kiosks-downtown-san-diego/.