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Court dismisses H and H Retail’s claim to install digital signs at Ovation Hollywood, City Planning Commission told
Summary
The commission was informed July 11 that a trial court dismissed H and H Retail Owner LLC’s claim that a development agreement allowed replacement of static billboards at Ovation Hollywood with digital signs; planning staff had directed the company to pursue the Hollywood Signage Supplemental Use District process instead.
Commission President Monique Lachey reported at the City Planning Commission’s July 11 meeting that a trial court dismissed H and H Retail Owner LLC’s lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, concluding the company did not have a right under its development agreement to replace existing static billboards at Ovation Hollywood with digital signs.
"The court agreed with the city that H and H did not have a right to replace the static billboards with digital signs under the agreement and dismissed all allegations against the city on July 3, 2024," Lachey said. She told commissioners that H and H operates Ovation Hollywood, a roughly 1,200,000-square-foot mixed-use complex at Hollywood and Highland.
Lachey summarized the dispute: a prior owner entered a 20-year development agreement that "froze" the signage regulations in place when the agreement was signed (the commission was told this occurred around 2001). Planning staff told H and H to pursue the administrative route established in the Hollywood Signage Supplemental Use District — enacted in 2004 — which provides a process for property owners seeking digital signage. According to the commission's account, H and H declined to pursue that process and filed suit about six weeks before the development agreement expired in the fall of 2022.
The commission was reminded that it considered a related request from H and H in May (the commission previously declined to find that the city had breached the development agreement). Lachey did not announce any further action for the commission on the matter; the report served to inform commissioners of the court's July 3, 2024 ruling.
Background: the dispute centered on whether the terms of a long-standing development agreement allowed modernization of existing signs. The commission's briefing emphasized that, under the city's account, the agreement froze then-applicable signage rules and that more recent administrative processes (the Hollywood Signage Supplemental Use District) were the appropriate path for H and H to seek digital signage approval.
