Monty’s Agrees to Updated Look for Its Landmark Sign in Westwood

The huge Monty’s sign that has watched over Westwood Village like a doting grandparent for the past 19 years is about to shed its outdated image in favor of a more contemporary look.

The change, Los Angeles city officials say, should make the landmark sign atop a 21-story office building more compatible with the trendy neighborhood, where rooftop advertising is considered almost as offensive as hamburger stands and video arcades.

“The sign has always looked like a banner hanging out of someone’s window,” said Virginia Kruger, planning deputy to Westwood Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “It should be redesigned in keeping with today, if you will.”

Reluctant Convert

But the 440-square-foot sign--whose thick red lettering on a yellow background has beckoned customers to Monty’s Restaurant in the Glendon Avenue high-rise since 1969--is a reluctant convert to the stylish ‘80s.

Dennis Levine, owner of the sign and restaurant, agreed to the change this week only after city officials presented him with two options: Spruce up the sign or remove it.

“Changes will be made to make it more in line with the standards of the late 1980s,” Ivan W. Halperin, Levine’s attorney, said after meeting with the City Council’s Planning and Environment Committee on Tuesday. “It will say ‘Monty’s’ in a crisper way.”

Both Kruger and Halperin confessed, however, that they really don’t know what a more contemporary Monty’s sign should look like. That task, they said, will be left to architects and a design review board that will begin evaluating new projects in Westwood next month.

No Ideas for New Look

Asked if she had any ideas for the new sign, Kruger replied: “Not really, to be honest with you.”

Halperin, when asked the same question, responded: “We’ll have to look it over the next few weeks.”

For nearly four years, Levine has fended off city efforts to topple the sign, which violates a 1980 ordinance that prohibits rooftop signs in Westwood Village. Under the ordinance, Levine had five years to remove the sign or to seek an exemption.

In 1984, the city’s Planning Commission refused to grant an exemption. Ever since, Levine has been trying to work out an agreement with the City Council--and with Yaroslavsky’s office in particular--that would spare his sign.

“We need the sign for our business,” said Levine, who credits the sign with attracting motorists as far away as the San Diego Freeway. “It is essential.”

At a committee meeting in January, San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson, who heads the Planning and Environment Committee, told Kruger that he had “some real philosophical problems” about forcing Levine to remove the sign.

“This is a sign that has been in the community for close to 20 years,” Bernson said. “It was approved by the city.”

Sought Compromise

Bernson urged Kruger and Levine to return to the negotiating table to come up with a compromise that would protect Levine’s rights while addressing Yaroslavsky’s concerns about enforcing the Westwood Village sign ordinance.

Kruger said it became clear then that it would be difficult to win council approval for immediate removal of the sign, so she settled for a longer-term solution. The City Council is expected to approve the agreement April 27.

In addition to an immediate redesign of the sign, the two sides agreed to allow it to remain atop the high-rise building as long as Levine and his family own the restaurant and it is called Monty’s. With a change of name or ownership, the sign would have to come down.

“It is not a perfect solution,” Halperin said. “But Monty’s is going to be there for a very long time.”