AGOURA HILLS : Bank Heeds City Order to Take Down Pole Sign

A bank’s pole-mounted sign was plucked like a weed from alongside the Ventura Freeway in Agoura Hills on Tuesday, leaving the city with one fewer of the towering advertisements overwhelmingly banned by voters last November.

Union Federal Bank removed its 35-foot pole sign on the southeast corner of Kanan Road and Roadside Drive after the city last month ordered it taken down within 30 days. The bank was told to remove the sign because the building has been unused since last year.

Fourteen business owners have razed their pole signs during the past year or so, city planners said, but 30 of the unwanted advertisements still stand.

“Hopefully, this will start other businesses complying with our ordinance,” said Agoura Hills Councilwoman Fran Pavley. “I know the residents are eagerly looking forward to the signs coming down.”

Although Union Federal closed its branch in Agoura Hills in 1993, the sign was left on the leased property as a plug to freeway motorists as well as a display of the time and temperature, said Steve Ramsay, spokesman for the Brea-based bank.

“It’s unfortunate that the city has dictated to us to remove the sign,” Ramsey said. “We felt it was providing a community service with the time and temperature visible from the freeway.”

Reluctance to remove the offending signs, some of which are nearly 100 feet tall, is nearly universal among merchants, who are required to do so at their own cost.

The city in February denied requests from 13 business owners who wanted to keep their signs despite a ban on them upheld by 75% of voters in November. The 13 raised an unprecedented $100,000 to fight the city’s ban over the past two years. They and other sign owners will be sent notices next month ordering them to remove their pole signs, said City Atty. Greg Stepanicich.

No deadline for their removal has been set, Stepanicich said.

Agoura Hills outlawed the lollipop-style signs in 1985 on grounds that they wreck the view of the Santa Monica Mountains on the south side of the city.

The law took effect two years ago, touching off a political brawl between some of the sign owners and the city.