Dispute Is Ballooning Over City Sign Code

Lake Forest’s 18-month battle to remove a handful of balloons from outside Marlene Sicari’s party-supply shop escalated recently after city lawyers threatened the business owner with legal action.

Sicari could face a criminal complaint or a lawsuit if the balloons aren’t gone by Monday, according to a letter she received from the city attorney’s office.

It isn’t the first time the city has tried to deflate Sicari’s balloon display, which is prohibited under city sign codes.

City code enforcement officers have sent a series of “final” notices ordering Sicari to remove the balloons from the door of her shop, Party Place Warehouse on El Toro Road. The notices said Sicari could be fined up to $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail if she refused. Sicari’s landlord in the Twin Peaks Plaza received a similar warning.

Sicari and neighboring business owners say the city’s crusade to remove the balloons is a waste of taxpayer money.

“This whole area is rundown, and they’re not concerned about that, they’re concerned about six balloons,” said Sicari, who is known around town as the “balloon lady.” “I’ve been doing [the balloon displays] every single day for 19 years. I think it’s terrible that they should use their manpower and their resources to pursue this.”

Both Sicari and city leaders say they aren’t about to back down.

“We are obligated as a city to enforce the sign ordinance or any other laws that exist on the books,” Mayor Richard T. Dixon said. “Clearly [Sicari] is choosing to ignore our sign ordinance and do whatever she darn well pleases. She is in violation of the law. What laws would you ask the city to look the other way on?”

If Sicari doesn’t take down the balloons, “then that’s going to be between her and some judge to decide,” Dixon said.

The city’s sign ordinance was written four years ago to reflect the desires of numerous local business owners and real estate companies, Dixon said.

City officials said the vast majority of businesses in the city comply with the ordinance.

Sicari could pay about $60 to get a permit to put up balloons for up to eight weeks every year. The law prohibits displaying balloons every day of the year.

Council members and city officials said they couldn’t remember any instance of the city suing or filing a criminal complaint against a business owner over a sign code violation.

Customers shopping for Halloween supplies in Sicari’s shop last week said they didn’t see any harm in the balloons flying outside.

The city’s order is “absolutely ridiculous,” Huntington Beach resident Belinda Provini said. “They’re just balloons. If you don’t like them, come by and pop them.”

Other business owners in the area reported having run-ins with the city over similar code violations.

“They hassled me so many times that I didn’t want to be hassled anymore, and I just gave up,” said Paul Blake, owner of a barbershop a few doors down from Sicari’s store. Blake had hired children to walk along El Toro Road with sandwich boards advertising his shop, but stopped the practice at the city’s request.

“Business is hard enough without having people harass you,” Blake said.

City Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph said Sicari’s case is an example of why the city needs to loosen some of its sign codes.

Rudolph said she would “have a real problem with” the city taking legal action against Sicari.

Sicari said she will protest the city’s order this week by tying hundreds of balloons to trees and businesses in the plaza. She staged similar protests several months ago after the city first informed her that the balloons could land her in court.

Barring a judge’s order, Sicari said, nothing will force her to get rid of the balloons. “The city’s not going to make me do it,” she said.