Rosemead Amends Sign Law to Ease English Requirements : Business: The city, which had required 50% of a sign to be in English, now asks only that the establishment be legibly identified.

Under pressure from an Asian civil rights organization, the City Council on Tuesday revised a 2-year-old law requiring English characters on at least 50% of a business sign.

Rosemead is the first San Gabriel Valley city to change language requirements in its sign laws since U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi ruled last year that a Pomona “English also” law discriminated on the basis of national origin and limited freedom of speech.

In Temple City, officials have stopped enforcing a similar law while they review it. In Garden Grove in Orange County, English-language provisions in the sign ordinance now are voluntary.

Rosemead’s amended ordinance, which passed 3 to 0 with Councilman Robert Bruesch abstaining and Councilman Robert DeCocker absent, still requires English on all signs to identify the type of business, and the description must be legible from a distance of at least 50 feet. It no longer dictates how much space on a sign can be used for foreign languages.

One Chinese businessman affected by the old ordinance said that, although he spent $500 to enlarge English characters on his grocery store signs after the 1988 law was passed, he never thought the law was discriminatory.

“I thought it was fair because we’re living in the United States,” said Leo Lee, 37, owner of Kawa Supermarket on Valley Boulevard. “I didn’t worry about it. If City Hall complained, I did what they wanted.”

Some Asian community leaders have charged that such language laws were passed by city leaders resentful of the burgeoning Asian population in the San Gabriel Valley. In Monterey Park, a sign ordinance requiring an English description of the name or nature of the establishment was adopted in 1986 after a bitter campaign by longtime residents who lobbied for laws requiring the use of English. Other cities, including Arcadia, San Gabriel and San Marino, passed more restrictive sign laws.

Officials in those cities said there is a practical reason for the ordinance: In an emergency, firefighters and police officers would have a hard time finding a business with only the address and Chinese characters printed on the sign.

Rosemead council members said eliminating the “50/50” provision, while still requiring some English, would keep businesses recognizable and protect the city from a legal challenge.

“If it’s all Oriental characters we would have to go totally by the number,” said Mayor Dennis McDonald, who also is El Monte’s fire marshal. “A lot of times when you’re working as a firefighter, you think of the name rather than the address. When somebody gives you a call saying there’s a fire at Pepe’s Restaurant, you know where that shop is located.”

Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which has been monitoring sign laws, said he doesn’t object to a requirement that signs include a description of the business in English.

“There is a valid health and safety requirement, but I cannot see a valid reason to have English on every sign,” Kwoh said. “Let’s say a business has five signs. Why would every sign have to have English on it? That would be a form of harassment.”

Meanwhile, Bruesch, who also abstained from the vote to pass the law in 1988, said the sign ordinance was unnecessary because Asian business owners had complied with a voluntary English language sign policy before it was made mandatory. “This has become a tempest in the teapot stirred up,” he said.