Chatsworth : Councilman Agrees, Traffic Sign’s Too Big

For 20 years, Lenora Brokaw has lived in the same house on Chatsworth’s Tuba Street, with an unobstructed view of the Santa Susana Mountains a few miles to the north.

Until now.

On Monday, Brokaw watched from her backyard as workers completed an overhead traffic-sign tower that directs cars into or away from Monteria Estates, a gated community with an entrance at Winnetka Avenue and Devonshire Street.

“It is the size you see on the freeway,” she said, estimating that the structure, which stretches across three lanes of northbound traffic on Winnetka, rises 25 feet. “It’s hard to find a sign in the Valley this size on a residential street.”

Irene McGee has lived in the neighborhood for only five years but, like Brokaw, wants the sign replaced.

“It looks like it’s in my backyard,” she said. “It’s an eyesore. It’s awful.”

City officials say the sign is needed to reduce accidents at the intersection, but Brokaw and her neighbors have already found an ally in City Councilman Hal Bernson’s office.

“Our staff has looked at the sign and we think it’s too big,” said Greig Smith, Bernson’s chief of staff.

According to Smith, the sign was placed by the city’s Department of Transportation to prevent collisions and direct northbound traffic to other routes to the Simi Valley Freeway.

Although the sign is part of $1 million in local traffic improvements paid for by Great Western Bank when the company built its Chatsworth headquarters, the city decided on its placement, Smith said.

“We know it’s got to be there,” Smith said. “Without these signs, you’re going to have accidents.”

In response to neighbors’ complaints, Bernson has asked the Department of Transportation to consider a smaller sign.

“They’re going to take a second look at it,” Smith said.