Agoura Hills : City to Appeal Ruling on Freeway Signs

Agoura Hills will appeal a judge’s decision that bars the city from enforcing a 10-year-old ordinance banning freeway signs, city officials said Monday.

The judge’s decision stems from a lawsuit by 11 Agoura Hills businesses, which sued the city last year in an attempt to keep their freeway signs. In July, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stephen Petersen issued a permanent injunction against the city, saying the businesses have the right to the signs under the state’s Business and Professions Code.

The sign owners say the code guarantees them the right to have freeway signs to attract customers. Robert Aran, an attorney for three of the plaintiffs who wrote the section of the business code pertaining to signs, called Petersen’s decision a “victory for property rights.”

Agoura Hills City Atty. Greg Stepanicich said he believes the judge has not correctly interpreted the code. The city argues that the code, which deals with height and size issues, does not apply in this case because the city wants to eliminate the signs altogether.

Petersen, in his ruling, called the city’s argument “sheer semantical sophistry.”

Meanwhile, Stepanicich’s firm, Los Angeles-based Richards, Watson & Gershon, has announced that it will charge a flat fee of $10,000 for any remaining work to be done in the case, Agoura Hills City Manager Dave Adams said.

The legal fees run up by the city in the case--$152,000 since June, 1994--have been “a bone of contention in the community,” Adams said.