Boulevard’s Big Corvette Gets a Big Thumbs-Up : Ruling: Planning officials acknowledge carwash sign is illegal, but back it anyway. City Council may hear appeal.

The pink Corvette can stay. It’s just weird enough for Ventura Boulevard.

That’s what the Los Angeles Planning Commission decided on Thursday, allowing Studio City Hand Car Wash to keep its controversial, new, eye-catching sign.

The fiberglass sign, sporting a 1957 Corvette resting on a yellow sponge, is too big to be legal, but the commission voted unanimously to make an exception during a hearing at the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club.

The commission was swayed by the sign’s artistic value, said Bob Scott, a planning commissioner.

“Our concern is Southern California has a rich history of having some rather eclectic signage,” Scott said. “It is just unusual enough to fit into that Southern California culture. That got the commission to see it differently.”

Polly Ward, who led opposition to the sign by area residents, was disappointed and puzzled by the decision.

“[It] leaves the door wide open to anyone on the boulevard to do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it,” said Ward, who is vice president of the Studio City Residents Assn. “The whole basis of opposition was not that we didn’t like it or like it, not that it’s art or not art. It’s just illegally constructed.”

For Ben Forat, owner of the carwash, the decision was good news. Shortly after raising the sign in January, the city fined him $400 for failing to obtain a permit.

Forat, a music and electronics engineer, designed and engineered the sign to attract attention to his business. It cost $55,000 to construct the sign, he said, and about $25,000 more in city and attorney fees to keep it.

“I would’ve walked away had I known it would be such a hard battle,” said Forat, 34.

Within three months, the carwash was getting 200 cars a day, doubling its number of customers. Forat also increased his staff from 10 to 30.

The carwash has operated at 11514 Ventura Blvd. for seven years.

Still, the sign violates several city regulations, said Ward, who has long been active in local planning. It is 6 feet higher than the maximum allowed, 20 feet, she said, and although it should be 10 feet from the property line, it is only 18 inches back.

Scott said the opposition made a good case against the sign. “They’re out there to do a right thing and protect the boulevard from these encroachments,” he said. “They had good points. They were not wrong.”

Ward said the carwash is surrounded by auto businesses with much larger billboards, which were put up before 1991 and can stay.

“The fact that it’s a mess down there is what the plan is all about--getting rid of the schlock, to make it like the nicer [Studio City] areas,” Ward said.

But despite the visual congestion, the Corvette sign attracts people.

“In the scheme of things, his design might stand out only in that it is unique,” Scott said. “It seemed almost surreal having this argument over something like this.”

The commission also took into account that Forat removed two large business signs when he installed the Corvette.

“I think it moves in the direction of less clutter and provides something rather interesting,” Scott said. “It has gotten people’s attention. I [had] no sense that it was an eyesore. The community in the area seemed accepting of it.”

Nevertheless, residents who oppose the sign say they plan to appeal the planning commission decision to the City Council, Ward said.

The sign is in Joel Wachs’ council district, and the councilman is “gathering information” but has not yet taken a position on the issue, according to his planning deputy, Dale Thrush.

Meanwhile, the sign seems destined to join a long list of Los Angeles architectural icons.

“I thought it would increase my business a little bit, and it turned out to be a landmark,” Forat said.