Council votes to limit downtown newsracks

The Huntington Beach City Council voted unanimously this week to regulate newspaper racks in the downtown area, following complaints that the racks were unsightly and crowding sidewalks. But they didn’t stop there — in a last-minute change, they voted to call back a committee that studied downtown, looking to come up with future rules for the whole city.

The council voted 7-0 Tuesday on an amended ordinance that would limit newsracks to four in a row, with only two such rows in any given area of downtown.

The ordinance, put together by a committee of council members and downtown business owners, who took feedback from newspaper companies as well, regulates newsracks down to the exact model and color — olive gray — permitted downtown.

While the committee only studied the needs of downtown, Councilman Joe Carchio said it should apply to the whole city.

“What the committee has done is pretty adequate,” he said. “We’re at a point right now where I think that we can take this and go forward with it. Otherwise it’s going to drag on and drag on and drag on.”

But other council members, as well as City Atty. Jennifer McGrath, said there would be problems — even possible lawsuits — if the city tried to expand restrictions to the whole city if the committee didn’t study it first.

“I would hate to have them [newspaper companies] wake up and find out it’s applied citywide without them having the chance to have their say,” Mayor Debbie Cook said.

Carchio ultimately accepted those suggestions, and a motion to regulate downtown and study the rest of the city passed 7-0.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes.com.