A city or county, whose ordinances or regulations were introduced or adopted after March 12, 1983, or any amendments to those ordinances and regulations, is not in violation of Section 5491 if it elects to require the removal, without compensation, of any on-premise advertising display which meets any of the following criteria:

(a) Any advertising display erected without first complying with all ordinances and regulations in effect at the time of its construction and erection or use.

(b) Any advertising display which was lawfully erected anywhere in this state, but whose use has ceased, or the structure upon which the display has been abandoned by its owner, for a period of not less than 90 days. Costs incurred in removing an abandoned display may be charged to the legal owner.

(c) Any advertising display which has been more than 50 percent destroyed, and the destruction is other than facial copy replacement, and the display cannot be repaired within 30 days of the date of its destruction.

(d) Any advertising display whose owner, outside of a change of copy, requests permission to remodel and remodels that advertising display, or expand or enlarge the building or land use upon which the advertising display is located, and the display is affected by the construction, enlargement, or remodeling, or the cost of construction, enlargement, or remodeling of the advertising display exceeds 50 percent of the cost of reconstruction of the building.

(e) Any advertising display whose owner seeks relocation thereof and relocates the advertising display.

(f) Any advertising display for which there has been an agreement between the advertising display owner and the city or county, for its removal as of any given date.

(g) Any advertising display which is temporary.

(h) Any advertising display which is or may become a danger to the public or is unsafe.

(i) Any advertising display which constitutes a traffic hazard not created by relocation of streets or highways or by acts of any city or county.

(j)  Ordinances adopted by a city within three years of its incorporation, which incorporation occurs after March 12, 1982, shall not be subject to Section 5491 except as provided by Section 5494.

(k) Notwithstanding subdivision (j), for any city or county incorporated after January 1, 1989, an ordinance initially adopted within three years of incorporation, or any amendment thereto within that three-year period, may require removal without compensation, except that no removal without compensation may be required within 15 years from the effective date of that ordinance or amendment.

(Amended by Stats. 1988, Ch. 991, Sec. 1.)