CALABASAS : 2 Too-Tall Signs Ordered Removed

In the latest battle in the local war over freeway pole signs, the Calabasas Planning Commission has ordered two business people to remove their signs within 90 days.

The Calabasas Mobil and Red Robin restaurant signs, facing the Ventura Freeway from their posts on Calabasas Road, violate a city ordinance prohibiting signs higher than 60 feet, the commission ruled Thursday.

According to city officials, the signs, installed about 22 years ago, have been non-complying since 1977, when the county adopted an ordinance setting a 42-foot height limit. Calabasas adopted the county’s ordinance when it incorporated in 1991.

The Mobil sign is 100 feet, and the Red Robin sign is 75 feet.

John Barkhordar, owner of the Mobil station, said Friday that he’s not sure if he will comply and that he has a lawyer looking into the matter. Officials from Red Robin could not be reached for comment.

Barkhordar said he plans to place a flag on his sign at a height of 42 feet, to see if a sign at that height would be visible from the freeway.

He said he would not take down the sign “until we check everything out,” adding that if a 42-foot sign is “really visible, we will go with it. But if it’s not visible, then we will not go with it.”

Because his business and the Red Robin are next door to each other, he said, he also wants to make sure that if he did install a lower sign it would not be obscured by a new Red Robin sign.

“I don’t want to fight with the city,” he added. “I live in Calabasas and I work in Calabasas.”

The businesses can appeal the decision to the City Council.

In recent months, Calabasas and Agoura Hills have begun taking steps to force business owners to comply with pole sign ordinances.

The issue has created hard feelings between opponents of freeway signs, who say they spoil the scenery, and many business people, who say they will lose customers if the signs come down.

In Agoura Hills, where pole-mounted signs were banned in 1985, 10 business owners filed lawsuits against the city in May in an effort to keep their freeway signs, which were to have been removed by March, 1992.

One recent case was settled amicably. In May, Agoura Hills announced an agreement with Shell Oil Co., under which Shell would take down a 70-foot pole sign in exchange for permits to build a carwash and a mini-mart.