Santa Monica advances Digital Display District Ordinance for Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place
December 18, 2025 9:28 AM
Council approves agreements for seven displays
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Dec. 17, 2025) — The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday approved a Digital Display District Ordinance establishing a digital display district encompassing Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place shopping center.
Building on the Realignment Plan, which focuses on a clean and safe downtown through public safety investments, capital improvements, and new and existing Promenade activations, the Digital Display District Ordinance is intended to complement broader revitalization efforts. Together with initiatives such as the Entertainment Zone, both serve as strategic placemaking tools to support a vibrant and revitalized downtown.
The ordinance allows the city to advance its vision of downtown as a cultural, entertainment, and economic center while maintaining standards for quality and consistency of digital displays, such as:
- Digital displays are limited to corner buildings on Third Street Promenade and on four exterior façades at Santa Monica Place.
- Each display is capped at 1,000 square feet, with a maximum of 16 displays districtwide.
- All digital displays require approval through individual Development Agreements, ensuring consistency and meaningful community benefits.
- Each owner of the digital display must meet minimum building occupancy standards to ensure active, occupied ground-floor spaces that support pedestrian activity and a vibrant streetscape.
Other key provisions of the ordinance include:
- Limits on brightness, hours of operation and refresh rates
- Projections and encroachment standards
- Prohibitions on flashing or traffic-confusing content
- Mandatory use of 100 percent renewable energy, where commercially available
- Emergency alert capabilities for public announcements
- Strict maintenance, safety and malfunction requirements
The ordinance also requires the provision of community benefits, including financial contributions to the city. The ordinance specifically requires that applicants provide a one-time contribution to the city of $500,000 per digital display and continuous annual financial contributions consisting of a revenue-sharing model or minimum annual guarantee of at least $500,000, whichever is greater.
Assuming all 16 displays are active, the estimated ongoing contribution to the city is expected to be between $3.5 million and $7.0 million annually, or 20 percent of the gross annual revenues for each approved digital display, whichever is greater.
Additionally, each digital display must allocate at least 20 percent of screen time for city public messaging and arts content that may include civic information, cultural programming, local storytelling, and public art. The ordinance will go into effect 30 days after the second reading, slated for early 2026.
Following the adoption of the ordinance, the council also approved four development agreements for seven large-format, off-premise digital displays in Downtown Santa Monica:
- Four displays at 395 Santa Monica Place
- One display at 301 Arizona Avenue / 1253 Third Street Promenade
- One display at 1202 Third Street Promenade
- One display at 1310 Third Street Promenade
The approved Development Agreements will go into effect upon the effective date of the ordinance.
For more information, watch the meeting discussion here, or see the staff report here.
Media Contact
Tati Simonian
Public Information Officer
Tati.Simonian@santamonica.gov
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