Businessman to Be Questioned in Sign Thefts : Campaign: A check of a license plate reported by witnesses to the removal of political placards points to an auto shop owner once aided by Councilman Hal Bernson.

Los Angeles police investigating the disappearance of 1,500 campaign signs promoting election opponents of City Councilman Hal Bernson want to interview a Northridge businessman who Bernson aided with a zoning change in 1989.

Police have delayed interviewing businessman Alan D. Fox because Fox asked for permission to speak with an attorney first, Detective Robert Pulley said. State Department of Motor Vehicles records show that a pickup truck registered to Fox bears the license plate allegedly seen by two men who told police they witnessed removal of the signs late Thursday night.

Candidates Allen Robert Hecht and Walter Prince, running against Bernson for the 12th District seat, filed police reports Friday claiming that together they lost 1,500 signs worth $10,000.

Removal of the signs is unlawful even if they are illegally posted, Pulley said. “The analogy I was given is that if you park your car in a red zone, it’s illegal,” the detective said. “But that does not give a private citizen the right to tow your car away and keep it.”

Bernson pushed for a zoning change that permitted construction of Fox’s Tire and Auto Center, a 7,000-square-foot auto repair facility, on property owned by Fox and a brother, Cary Fox, at 19321 Roscoe Blvd.

Such a facility was not permitted under a 1988 rezoning of the property that specifically prohibited its use for an auto repair business. The Fox brothers had sought to amend the rezoning in an effort to win permission to build their business.

Dissatisfied with the outcome, the brothers sought to amend the ordinance. They were represented by lobbyist Robert Wilkinson, a close associate of Bernson’s and his predecessor on the council.

Alan Fox, 44, a Northridge resident, also is owner of Ram Tire & Automotive Center at 8449 Sepulveda Blvd. He has refused to talk to a Times reporter.

Cary Fox said the zoning change was not unusual. “Nothing strange went on,” he said. “We didn’t get any special treatment.”

Cary Fox added that he and his brother had purchased the property only after they consulted Bernson, whose district includes the Roscoe Boulevard business, and got assurances from him that he would approve an auto repair center for the site. “We took the councilman to the site and showed him what we wanted to do and asked him what he thought,” Cary Fox said.

Bernson declined Tuesday to talk about his dealings with Alan Fox.

The bid to amend the 1988 zoning law was opposed by city Planning Department staff and the Planning Commission. A report on the application noted that an auto repair facility is “considered one of the most disturbing of all commercial uses, and one of the least compatible with residential uses.”

Bernson, chairman of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, fought the recommendations and the City Council agreed.

According to city records, City Council approval of the plan also exempted the Fox property from city zoning codes that require auto garages to file for conditional use permits when they are within 300 feet of a residential zone.

The council approved the exemption over the objection of the city attorney’s office, records show.