Sign Crackdown Alarms Agoura Hills Home Sellers

Real estate agents say this may be the last weekend that house hunters can find homes for sale in Agoura Hills.

Not that there won’t be plenty of houses on the market next week. Property salesmen say there will still be hundreds--it’s just that home buyers won’t be able to find them.

Agoura Hills city officials are poised to crack down on real estate agencies that post the so-called “Sunday signs” on curbs and street corners to direct buyers to weekend open houses.

David White, who sells homes in the area, predicted out-of-town “looky-loos” will be lost in Agoura Hills without those helpful directional signs.

“Try and find some of the streets out here. There are a lot of cul-de-sacs and a lot of new streets that aren’t even on the map yet,” White said. “Open houses will basically be useless.”

Real estate agents say it’s a blow to them to have the signs come down just as home interest rates are doing the same thing. They say the Agoura Hills market is one of the hottest in the Los Angeles area, with about 300 homes now for sale.

City officials are printing up a stack of citations that will mean $100 fines for offenders who stick signs in medians or tape them to light poles or staple them to wooden traffic signposts.

They have sent a city staff member to a college police science class so he can be deputized to hand out the tickets.

“We’ll start next week,” Agoura Hills Planning Director Paul Williams said Friday of the curb-cleanup campaign. “We’d have started by now if the citations were back from the printer.

“These signs are a major problem and they’re getting worse as we get close to the holiday season. There are a lot of homes on the market and there are a lot of holiday boutiques being advertised. We have lots of garage sales, too.”

Williams said real estate brokers will be allowed to use up to three directional signs per listing--provided they are placed on private property, not on street corners or parkways. Officials acknowledge that realty agents may have a tough time finding homeowners willing to let them put up directional signs on their lawns, however.

In addition, all pennants and flags will be outlawed. And garage sale and other special event signs will only be allowed on private property.

City Planner Rick Shiell, who received state certification empowering him to issue tickets after taking a class at Ventura College, said he will issue verbal warnings to those posting signs before he issues tickets.

The first offense will bring a $100 fine, he said. After that, the fine climbs to $500. “They’ll be compounded on a daily basis so that a sign up for a week could cost you $1,800,” Shiell said.

Felicity Kidd, Agoura Hills’ acting city manager, said Shiell will work a weekend shift until the city can hire a retired policeman or sheriff’s deputy for the sign patrol.

“It’s totally ridiculous,” realty company owner Gary A. Paller said Friday. “I’m baffled by how we’re going to market our houses. It’s going to have a very negative effect on our sales. Without directional signs to open houses, you just can’t market houses.”

Although city officials say homeowners are overwhelmingly behind the weekend sign crackdown, some residents will be quick to feel the heat.

Larry Moisan is one of them. He helped plaster a missing-dog poster on light poles over most of the eight-square-mile city when his son’s chow escaped from the back yard 10 days ago.

“If you asked me before the dog ran away, I’d have said it’s a good law. But now I’d say, leave it alone,” Moisan said Friday.

“We’ve had about 10 calls from the signs. They’ve given us hope we’ll get the dog back.”