AGOURA HILLS : City Asks for Ruling on Freeway Signs

The city of Agoura Hills, hoping to avoid a costly trial, has asked the state Court of Appeal to rule on whether state law limits the city’s authority to require local businesses to remove their outlawed freeway signs.

Twelve businesses sued the city last year to keep the freeway signs, which the city banned in 1985. The city gave the businesses seven years to take down the signs, which are still standing.

The businesses say the state’s Business and Professions Code guarantees them the right to have freeway signs if the establishments can’t be clearly seen from the freeway. The city argues that the code does not apply because it deals with height and size issues, while the city wants to do away with the signs altogether.

Mitchell Abbot, an attorney for the city, said the case will go to trial if the Court of Appeal refuses to hear the case now. A trial would cost the city at least $100,000 in legal fees, he said. The plaintiffs, who have seven attorneys in all, would pay much more.

“This is a case that is ultimately going to go before the Court of Appeal, anyway,” Abbot said.

The city tried to get a lower-court judge to dismiss the case, but the judge refused. According to Robert Aran, an attorney for four of the plaintiffs, the judge ruled that the code applies, because the city’s ordinance is based on size and height issues.

But according to Abbot, “The only thing the judge did is rule that the complaints are sufficient to allow the case to go forward, and that he was not going to throw the case out of court at this preliminary stage.”

Aran, who wrote the portion of the city Business and Professions Code that pertains to freeway signs, said he doubted that litigation would end, even if the Court of Appeal sides with the city.

The state court may decide within the next 10 days whether it will hear the case, Abbot said. A final decision could be reached before the year is out.