Ordinance Makes Pole Signs Illegal

The Calabasas City Council approved without discussion a new sign ordinance that makes pole signs along the Ventura Freeway illegal, city officials said Thursday.

At a council meeting Wednesday night, the council made official a regulation it had tentatively approved two weeks ago, and one that has existed, in theory, with the city’s General Plan since incorporation in 1991.

According to the new ordinance, businesses with pole signs have as long as 15 years to comply.

Marilyn Miller, Calabasas senior planner, has said that there are eight pole signs in violation of the ordinance.

Of those, she said, four businesses had said they were willing to take the signs down, while two had yet to respond and two had said they would not remove them. Merchants along the Ventura Freeway say they rely on the pole signs to lure customers.

Red Robin restaurant on Calabasas Road was among the four businesses that said their signs would go when the ordinance was passed.

But Chris Padavick, who took over as manager of Red Robin after the agreement, said he is reluctant to do so.

“If [the city’s] going to foot the bill, and if they take all the signs down, more power to them,” he said. “But that sign has been there for 12 years. To tell us to take it down, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Calabasas Mayor Lesley Devine said that the city is working on a plan to erect a new sign on property off the eastbound Ventura Freeway that would feature logos of several businesses at the Las Virgenes Road exit.

She added, though, that since Los Angeles County owns land around the Calabasas Road exit, that might make it difficult to do the same for businesses there.

“If we get the first one up successfully, then we can go to the county and help coordinate something there,” she said. “I think we can get that cooperation.”