Cease-Fire Proposed in N. County Billboard Battle

An uneasy peace was struck Thursday in the sign wars that have raged for years between builders and a dogged community leader in this unincorporated coastal area.

Aaron Kolkey, a spokesman for home builders in the area, admitted the industry’s guilt in flanking roadways with illegal signs directing buyers to the new residential subdivisions. Kolkey, president of Cameo Development Co., agreed to work with county officials and residents to see that no more illegal billboards are erected.

The meeting had been scheduled at Supervisor Paul Eckert’s Vista office but was shunted to another room. Eckert, who had been scheduled to attend the session, bowed out, explaining that “I’m not sure I ought to be here. I don’t even know what this is all about.”

Tom Griffin, vice chairman of the Cardiff Town Council and spokesman for other citizen groups in the area, gave a tentative nod to a compromise solution to the sign problem. Under the agreement, builders must remove all non-conforming signs that have sprouted along roadways in county areas in return for a change in the coastal zone ban on all off-site signs.

The proposed county ordinance stipulates that each development may have as many as four 3-by-5-foot off-site signs within three miles of its subdivision. Off-site signs in the coastal zone--which includes the communities of Solana Beach, Cardiff, Encinitas and Leucadia--would be banned beginning in 1987, according to the plan.

The agreement will come before the county Board of Supervisors for tentative approval Wednesday. The county has issued an ultimatum to developers and sign companies to remove about 200 illegal signs by today.

Griffin balked at full endorsement of the compromise, pointing out that “past performance” by county planning officials led him to doubt that the measure would be enforced.

However, after Kolkey promised that a task force of building industry officials, community representatives and county staffers would tour the San Dieguito area in November to identify and remove any remaining illegal signs, Griffin indicated that he would not oppose the peace offer.

Randy Hurlburt, deputy director of the county planning codes division, said that the department is hampered by lack of time and personnel to track down and cite companies that place illegal signs along San Dieguito roads.

Hurlburt also pointed out that enforcement is difficult and usually requires taking the companies to court, a costly and time-consuming procedure.

Kolkey suggested that the county use the alternative method of ordering building inspectors to halt further inspections of developments that have illegally placed signs, a move he said would “hit them where it hurts, in the pocketbook” and assure prompt compliance with sign laws. New houses cannot be put up for sale until they pass final inspection by the county building officials.

“We know we have done wrong and we are here to correct it,” Kolkey told Griffin and the county officials who attended the conference. “We don’t need the Sheriff’s Department to do this,” he said, referring to an action last summer by sheriff’s deputies who confiscated 33 signs on public property.

Kolkey cited signed pledges by six area developers to pay additional permit fees to finance a county enforcement program, as well as to continue policing the industry against further violations.

The battle against sign proliferation in the coastal zone began when a local law prohibiting off-site signs took effect on Jan. 11. Griffin protested at the time that developers were continuing to erect signs without permits despite the ban.

Last spring, vigilantes toppled a number of the signs and threatened to continue unless the county began enforcing its sign laws. Deputy sheriffs in July took down 33 signs placed illegally on public rights-of-way, but the county district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the sign companies involved.

One sign company owner, Al Wylie, filed suit against an Olivenhain man, Bob Nortman, and several unnamed alleged accomplices, seeking more than $1 million in damages for loss of his signs. That suit is still pending.