Garden Grove English Ordinance Topic of Meeting

A public meeting is scheduled tonight on a proposed ordinance to require English, or English translations, on new commercial signs.

The Planning Commission meeting is intended as a public forum on the controversial proposal, which planners first approved Aug. 26.

The City Council at its Oct. 16 meeting , faced with opposition from civil rights groups and some Korean businesss and with a threatened lawsuit from the Asian Pacific Legal Center of Garden Grove, voted 5 to 0 to return the proposal to planners for reconsideration.

The ordinance would have required that “all signs containing non-English letters shall also individually include English characters”and that those letters “shall be visible and legible from the public right of way and/or the nearest point of access or view for police, fire and public safety officials.”