(a) Any city or county adopting or amending any ordinance or regulation that regulates or prohibits the use of any on-premises advertising display that is more restrictive than existing law, shall include provisions in that ordinance or regulation for the identification and inventorying of all displays within its territorial limits that are determined to be illegal or abandoned pursuant to the law that is in effect prior to the adoption of, or amendment to, the ordinance or regulation.

(b) The required identification and inventory shall commence not later than 120 days from the date on which the ordinance or regulation is adopted or amended and shall be completed in a timely manner. The population of the city or county, as determined by the most recent federal census, the number of on-premise advertising displays located within the city or county, and other relevant factors may serve as a guide for the purposes of determining what constitutes “a timely manner” for the purposes of this subdivision.

(c) (1) Upon the completion of the required identification and inventory, the city or county shall consider, at a public hearing with opportunity for public comment, whether there is a need for the ordinance or regulation described in subdivision (a) to take effect.

(2) (A) Any applicable amortization schedule for the ordinance or regulation adopted or amended pursuant to this section shall not expire until at least six months after the date on which the city or county confirms, pursuant to paragraph (1), that there is a continuing need for that ordinance or regulation to take effect, unless the amortization period specified in the ordinance is for a longer term, in which case the remaining term shall apply.

(B) Until the city or county provides, pursuant to paragraph (1), that there is a continuing need for the ordinance or regulation to take effect, the new ordinance shall not apply to a change of copy, change of color, maintenance, or repair made to a sign which conformed to the prior ordinance unless those changes, maintenance, or repairs involve a change in location or structure of the sign.

(d) An identification and inventory is not required if a city or county has undertaken and completed an identification and inventory of illegal or abandoned displays not more than three years prior to the date on which the ordinance or regulation described in subdivision (a) is adopted or amended.

(e) This section does not apply if a city or county adopts or amends an ordinance or regulation that regulates only new on-premises advertising displays. For the purposes of this section, a “new on-premises advertising display” means a display whose structure or housing has not been permanently affixed to its intended premise on the date on which the ordinance or regulation is adopted.

(Repealed and added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1150, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 1997.)