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Council approves Legacy Loop full-motion billboard after lighting, access concerns
Summary
The West Hollywood City Council introduced ordinances to approve a revised Legacy Loop at 9200 Sunset Boulevard — a single 1,500-square-foot full-motion sign — after staff said a lighting study and environmental addenda support the project; the measure passed 3–1 amid resident concerns about light and motion impacts on Sierra Towers.
The West Hollywood City Council voted to introduce ordinances and a resolution approving a revised Legacy Loop development at 9200 Sunset Boulevard, authorizing a single 1,500-square-foot full-motion animated sign face and associated site improvements.
The project, presented by senior planner Paul Caparaso, would keep the sign's height at roughly 100 feet and add pedestrian plazas, bench seating, interpretive plaques about Sunset Strip history and a landscaped meadow. Staff told the council the development agreement would deliver an estimated $47.7 million in city revenue over a 30-year term, a $500,000 extraordinary payment, an estimated $39,800,000 fair-market value in public-arts programming and a $300,000 public realm enhancement payment.
Staff emphasized that the proposal was analyzed under the city’s existing environmental documentation: a 2019 negative declaration with a 2021 addendum and a 2025 conformance memo prepared for the current revision. The project is conditioned to meet updated nighttime lighting limits, capped at 200 candelas, and staff said the 2021 and 2025 documents included cumulative-impact and lighting analyses.
Residents of nearby buildings raised concerns about glare, motion and sleep disturbance. Douglas Ross, a Sierra Towers resident who emailed the council, wrote that because his unit “sits high above the street, I fall directly into the horizontal beam path of the proposed LED display” and warned that “full-motion digital signage produces continuous movement and high-intensity illumination that blinds or curtains can simply cannot block at elevation.” Jeff Seymour and the applicant’s lighting consultant, Don Hollingsworth of Darkhorse Light Works, told the council the most recent study modeled conservative, static white images at the 200-candela nighttime threshold and concluded trespass would meet the city’s standard; Hollingsworth said his analysis could not simulate every potential dynamic motion sequence and that motion introduces variables not fully captured by a static-snapshot study.
Council debate focused on whether the revised design, which removed one earlier sign face and reduced overall visible surfaces, reduces impacts compared with previous iterations. Councilmember Meister said the shift from static to full-motion raised unresolved concerns about motion intrusion; Vice Mayor Hang, Councilmember Buyers and Mayor Hileman said they found the site configuration, the lighting analysis and the additional public benefits persuasive. The council approved the ordinances and resolution on first reading by a 3–1 vote (Buyers, Hang, Hileman in favor; Meister opposed; Councilmember Ericson excused during the hearing).
The approval allows the city to move forward with the development agreement, zoning map amendment and associated sign permit procedures; staff also committed to follow up with Sierra Towers residents to share the lighting study and to provide a mechanism to receive and respond to operational complaints once the sign is active. The approval is an introduction on first reading; additional hearings and ministerial steps will follow before final entitlements are issued.
