Encino Merchants Say Sign Rules Cut Into Profits, Time

When Los Angeles’ new citywide sign law took effect in July after months of public wrangling, homeowner groups complained that it wasn’t tough enough. Now, since the city has enforced it on a trial basis along a 3 1/2-mile stretch of Ventura Boulevard, a group of Encino merchants is complaining that it is too tough.

An Encino Chamber of Commerce subcommittee Wednesday recommended that the chamber send a letter of protest to city officials, charging that the enforcement of the law only in Encino has been unfair and unduly burdensome on small businesses there.

Encino has been singled out for a test of the sign ordinance because city officials want to see how it goes there, where homeowner groups have been lobbying hard for stricter controls, before enforcing it citywide.

The complex ordinance, with lots of specifics about sign sizes, placement, materials and other details, is aimed at reducing unsightliness along busy commercial strips. It requires city permits for temporary signs in windows and on buildings--one of several features that apparently caught most merchants by surprise.

Small Businesses Bear Brunt

“The sign ordinance is a good idea, but the little merchant is getting the brunt of it,” said Ed Stout, a retired Encino stockbroker and former chamber president. “A guy changes his sign maybe every two weeks, and he has to run downtown and get a permit?” he said.

The temporary permit that Stout referred to costs $31.50 per sign. Penalties for violating the sign ordinance can bring up to six months in jail or fines of up to $1,000, or both.

The Chamber of Commerce subcommittee meeting followed weeks of merchant complaints that the sign law hampers business by muting merchants’ attempts at cheap advertising.

Attorney Alan Insul, president-elect of the chamber, predicted that the group will follow the subcommittee’s recommendation to seek “more even-handed and equitable” enforcement by the Department of Building and Safety.

The law evolved after months of City Council dispute about how strictly it would regulate billboards. Councilman Marvin Braude, whose district includes Encino, and a group of homeowners pushed hard to inhibit the construction of new billboards, which they said gave the Ventura Boulevard area a “honky-tonk” image. But the resulting ordinance, crafted by the late Councilman Howard Finn, puts loose limits on billboards and requires that permanent window signs occupy no more than 10% of window space, 25% for temporary signs.

John Plewe, a senior Building and Safety Department inspector who met with the Encino chamber last week, said Wednesday that the city has decided to overlook “inoffensive” signs erected before the new law took effect in July.

He said the city’s decision was not linked to the meeting. He said “inoffensive” means a sign not occupying the entire window space and which, in the judgment of the Building and Safety Department, is within common-sense boundaries in terms of size and obtrusiveness.

Ventura Boulevard businesses had complained that restrictions on window signs, which also require permits, stifle their ability to advertise their products to customers driving by.

“All the merchants are up in arms about this,” said John Melideo, co-owner of a lock shop. He said his primary advertising medium has been his storefront window sign, which city inspectors have told him to whittle down. “We’re hard to find,” he said. “It’s going to hurt business.”

“We’re talking about lifeblood,” Carol Ozanian, owner of Big Valley Music, said of the clearance-sale signs she is allowed to erect covering only 25% of her window after obtaining a temporary permit.

Complaints About Service

Others complained of long lines and poor service when they sought city permits for their signs.

“We waited two days down there,” said Mark Sferas, owner of Master Graphics Printing, a printing and copying store across Ventura Boulevard from Melideo’s lock shop.

Councilman Braude said he has heard the complaints and forwarded them to the Building and Safety Department. He said he has not concluded whether he agrees with the protests.

Referring to Ventura Boulevard, he said, “In order to make it more attractive, you have to regulate billboard signs and even window signs.

“It is unreasonable to expect that, when you are traveling 30 or 40 miles per hour down Ventura Boulevard that you should be able to see every sign that is 100 feet away. . . . It would just be an impossible amount of clutter.”

He added, “I’m not sure that in this new area of regulation there aren’t some rough spots.”

Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, said existing sign controls on small businesses are reasonable but unfair because billboard companies can operate “scot-free.”

Waiting Time Reduced

Plewe said that since the city assigned a full-time worker to handle sign-permit applications three weeks ago, the wait dropped from several hours to a half hour or less. Previously, applicants had to wait in the same line with those seeking building permits, he said.

About 500 warnings, which instructed merchants to correct signs at variance with the law, were issued in Encino since enforcement began in September, Plewe said. Only three businesses were ticketed, and the city has rescinded or plans to rescind all three citations, he said.

The trial period is to expire when City Council reconsiders the ordinance in January. Insul said now is “the critical time” for merchants to make their voices heard.

The subcommittee set a Nov. 12 date for a so-called “Town Hall” meeting about enforcement of the sign law.