Support for Big, Showy Arts Plaza Marquee Dims

Calling further consideration of a large electronic marquee on the Ventura Freeway “a waste of time,” the Thousand Oaks mayor is asking the Civic Arts Plaza’s boosters to come up with alternative ideas for marketing the $64-million building.

The council was to have considered on Tuesday whether to endorse the concept of such a sign, which would advertise the hall’s top upcoming acts. The sign, which would include the names of sponsors, was to be constructed just east of the Civic Arts Plaza.

But now, following several complaints from residents, Mayor Andy Fox is recommending that the council abandon the idea of a 40-foot-wide lighted sign, which was proposed last month by the plaza’s administrative board.

Instead, he wants council members to ask the plaza’s board of governors to devise other ways of identifying and marketing the complex.

“I am not interested in the city wasting its time in something that, in my view, is premature at best,” Fox said.

Erecting a 14-foot-high electronic blaze of lights is only one way of attracting more attention to the Charles E. Probst Center for the Performing Arts, he said.

And before settling on that promotional device, Fox said the council should wait until negotiations are finished regarding the development of private property next to the complex, and after a committee completes its brainstorming on ways to improve the appearance of the building’s south wall--now covered by a much-maligned copper curtain hanging sculpture.

Council members heralded support for the recommendation, saying that while the Civic Arts Plaza needs some sort of sign identifying it to the 150,000 drivers who pass it each day on the freeway, a massive, electric attention-getter is not what they, nor the public, had in mind.

“The building does need to be identified as what it is because it is not apparent what the very large, oversized windowless building is,” Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said. “But it is the commercialization of it I am very much opposed to.”

Under the proposal, sponsors would pay for the sign’s $467,000 cost in return for having their names appear, one at a time, on a small, rotating portion of the bottom of the billboard. The plan also included erecting large letters identifying the building on its east side and on the south side, above the copper curtain.

At a town hall meeting last week, a few residents expressed reservations about the sign and the council has received several letters from residents opposed to the idea, Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said.

“There is clearly displeasure in the community,” she said.

Also, residents have expressed outrage that the council would consider exempting itself from the city’s sign regulations, which prohibit such signs, she said.

“An electronic marquee flies in the face of everything this city stands for and also sets a double standard by giving ourselves something that we will not give private businesses,” Zeanah said.

Members of the Civic Arts Plaza’s board of governors, which unanimously approved the sign idea as a way of raising the profile of the combined performing arts and City Hall complex, said they are quite willing to explore other options.

“There is no rush,” Virginia Davis said. “There is no point in moving forward when there are other options.”

The board of governors has formed a five-member marketing committee to suggest new ideas. It will meet for the first time Thursday, said Julian Macdonald, a member of the board of governors.

Attendance at Civic Arts Plaza performances is down 15% contrasted with the same time last year, he said. Although most concert halls see their attendance drop after their inaugural year, Mcdonald said, the board is hoping to recapture some of its lost audience with new marketing plans.

Options already under consideration include seeking greater press coverage of upcoming events, launching a direct-mail campaign to potential patrons, and creating a data bank that would track, via ticket purchases, the types of shows seen by individuals who frequent the theater.

Nonetheless, the board is not ready to throw out the idea of the 14-by-40-foot sign, Macdonald said.

“We will follow the mayor’s advice on this and explore all of the avenues,” he said. “But the [marquee] will be within the mix of recommendations. We will not reject it at this point.”