Graffiti and chipped paint on the outside. Headlines and classified ads on the inside.
City leaders singled out several news racks across Solvang as eyesores due to poor maintenance.
During the Solvang City Council’s Oct. 14 meeting, Public Works Director and City Engineer Rodger A. Olds said staff realized during a fee program consultation that the city has not enforced its newspaper rack permitting program since 2017.
According to the staff report, there are 16 different publications with racks placed in Solvang’s public right of way, including spots in front of the Solvang Visitors Center and Post Office, and sidewalk space on Mission Drive, Copenhagen Drive, and Alisal Road.
Some racks’ city permits are long expired, while many were installed without any oversight from the city to begin with.
“Only five or six of them were ever permitted at all. So, they just kind of showed up over the years,” said Olds, who asked the council for direction on staff’s proposal to either restore or revise its news rack enforcement policy and require those who renew their permits to replace damaged or vandalized racks and keep future racks well maintained.
After Olds’ presentation, Councilmember David Brown suggested a stricter solution.
“Why do you feel there’s a need to perpetuate these stands even being there?” Brown asked staff.
City Attorney Chelsea O’Sullivan said the city can remove unpermitted news racks and enforce restrictions on where they can be installed but must afford the opportunity for approved news racks to have space “in the public forum,” specifically the sidewalk.
“A sidewalk is a public forum, and that is a space that has the most protections for free speech,” O’Sullivan said. “You can walk around on the sidewalk and say your piece. … We have to allow it; allow the speech to happen, but we can regulate it. … Case law surrounding news racks does not support the city just banning them in the city altogether, going forward.”
Brown said that a possible ban on news racks in the public right of way wouldn’t stop someone from picking up a newspaper or magazine inside a store or business, and questioned whether or not the First Amendment protects publications centered on advertising.
“There’s free speech and then there’s marketing,” Brown said. “Most of these that I’ve seen are for marketing purposes.”
O’Sullivan pointed out that case law “treats commercial speech—what we would call ads and advertisements—the same as a newspaper for this context.”
“It’s still speech,” O’Sullivan said, “even though it’s asking for a contract or proposing a sale, … or offering a product.”
The City Council ultimately greenlit staff’s request to resurrect the permit enforcement program and research potential amendments to revise and improve the policy. Olds said that staff will return with an update on the issue within the next couple of months.
This article appears in Oct 17-27, 2024.