UPDATE: San Jose approves digital billboards to boost revenue

Digital billboards will soon be part of Downtown San Jose’s landscape.

The San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow digital billboards to be placed in various downtown locations with advertising company Orange Barrel Media responsible for upkeep and operational costs. The city will receive 15% of the advertising time. The billboards are projected to bring San Jose tens of millions of dollars.

The illumination of the signs will be prohibited between midnight and 6 a.m, and the digital signs will run on renewable energy.

Interim Councilmember Carl Salas, who represents the downtown core, said he experienced sleepless nights over the people who were vehemently against the billboards. He wanted to make sure local art and music events weren’t ignored.

“I really needed to take the time to look and to see and to understand exactly what the history has been and what we’re doing here,” Salas said Tuesday. “It’s really important that 15% of the time is used for our city- funded events such as the Jazz Festival.”

A number of individuals opposed to the billboards said it would create light pollution and damage the downtown’s reputation.

“We formed five years ago when the city was planning to allow 112 new digital billboards all over San Jose,” Les Levitt, co-founder of No Digital Billboards in San Jose, said at the meeting. “We are deeply concerned that all of the risks associated with moving forward with digital billboards have not been fairly examined.”

Vice Mayor Pam Foley said she’s been waiting a long time for this to happen and sees it as a win for the downtown as she reiterated the parameters of the vote.

“I want to emphasize that this is not a blanket endorsement of billboards citywide,” she said at the meeting.

But the planning department did confirm the city is looking into adding digital billboards on State Route 87 and Highway 101.

San Jose economic development officials said the minimum guaranteed revenue generated from the city’s deal with Orange Barrel Media would be about $21 million over 20 years, while Orange Barrel Media told the city they project as much as $37 million in revenue.

The nearly 1,000-square-foot digital signs are set to be featured at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, McEnery Convention Center, the Market and San Pedro Street parking garage and the Second and San Carlos Street parking garage.

The installation of five signs, with two at the Center for Performing Arts, would be San Jose’s most ambitious since elected officials voted to end the billboard ban in 2018 on city-owned land.

Orange Barrel Media Senior Development Director Clay Collett previously said non-traditional ads in the downtown core will include national advertisers, as well as local San Jose businesses, with the goal of adding vibrancy through digitally-integrated architecture.

“We believe our proposal for San Jose captures this spirit perfectly,” he previously told San José Spotlight. “As part of our proposal for the Center for Performing Arts, we are installing new signage promoting the center itself, and we are building new seating and shade elements for theatergoers.”

While the proposed locations for digital signs initially included The Tech Interactive on Market Street, CEO and President Katrina Stevens said their existing lease agreement doesn’t allow for digital billboards.

She said having a giant ad on the side of the building could undermine public trust in The Tech’s scientific objectivity and ongoing sponsorships.

“With only 15% of the digital screen time reserved for (San Jose’s) own content in the city’s proposal, our promotional capacity would be heavily constrained, and we’d be competing for attention with unrelated, and potentially in-conflict, commercial advertising on our own building,” Stevens told city officials ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
Downtown Association CEO Alex Stettinski said the city has to enhance the pedestrian experience if they want to revitalize the downtown core.

“These displays integrate seamlessly into our built environment, accentuating our existing architecture while providing an innovative platform for renowned local artists to showcase their work,” he said Tuesday at the meeting. “We also would love to see some of the financial gains being invested back into downtown to continue our efforts to bring foot traffic to the area.”