AGOURA HILLS : Council Alters Ballot Measure Summary

In response to complaints by several local merchants and their supporters, the Agoura Hills City Council has changed the wording of a ballot measure that would encourage, but not require, businesses to lower and group their pole-top signs.

On the advice of the city attorney, the council reworked the one-sentence summary that will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot, removing a word and clarifying another phrase, at its regular meeting last week.

“We are attempting to work with the proponents of the initiative, to assure them that we have placed the wording on the ballot that best represents what they meant,” said City Atty. Greg Stepanicich.

The original summary of the measure, which qualified for the ballot with more than 2,000 voter signatures, asked whether a law should be adopted “permitting existing pole signs for all types of businesses to remain indefinitely. . . .” The word indefinitely was struck.

“Our feeling was that, by using the word indefinitely, the council was giving people the impression that if they make a decision, it will be forever and ever,” said Linda Harmon, political consultant for Concerned Tax Contributors, a group of merchants and others.

The group also objected to the end of the summary, which described a proposed exemption from maintenance requirements for some signs. The wording was changed to show that some sign owners would be exempt from “maintenance permit requirements,” instead of “maintenance.”

The merchants group organized their petition drive after a seven-year grace period on a ban on pole-top signs ended in March, 1992, and talks on a possible compromise with the city stalled, with some bitterness on both sides.

The measure would encourage businesses to place their signs in groups of three on poles no higher than 60 feet, steps several merchants have said they are committed to taking.

The council responded by placing a second measure on the ballot, which would limit signs to 35 feet tall.