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Posted by Jonathan on 4/24/2007, 7:45 pm Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford says he may have a solution to Nowyhed's problem if other members of the City Council agree to dust off a plan shelved years ago. This past fall, at City Hall's insistence, Nowyhed removed a large pole sign that alerted freeway motorists to his AM/PM minimart-Arco gas station outlet at 411 West Palmdale Blvd. Under an ordinance adopted in 1990, all businesses in Palmdale were supposed to remove their pole signs by September 2005, but some have not. Since losing his pole sign, his store's sales have dropped more than 25% and his gasoline sales have dropped nearly 50%, Nowyhed said. "If nothing happens in another few months, I'm putting my store up for sale at any price and I'm moving out," he said. Other business owners have told him they have no intention of removing their pole signs because of anticipated losses, Nowyhed said. The sign takedown has already impacted freeway-close eateries, which have shown drop-offs in business as signs have dropped in height and illumination. It is unfair for him to follow the rules and lose customers if the city is not making others take down their signs, Nowyhed said. "When people drive on the freeway and they see only that the AM/PM sign is down, they think I went out of business or that I moved out," he said. "If all of us remove our freeway signs, then the people will understand," Nowyhed said. "It looks like I went out of business and everyone else is still open." After 26 years of business at that location, "I know for a fact that most of my customers are commuters and travelers, not neighborhood residents," he said. It is that high transiency of customer base that is most affected by lowered visibility. Chuck McKaughan, senior code enforcement officer for Palmdale, said the Palmdale city attorney's office is preparing letters advising those with pole-signs still standing that they are being taken to court. Those who already have complied have saved themselves a trip before a judge, McKaughan said. "Of all of the different signs that were identified (as illegal), which was about 170, there are only about 20 that have yet to come down," he said. Per state law, the city gave all businesses with such signs 15 years of use before requiring removal, McKaughan said. "For all of those folks who still have nonconforming signs, the city is preparing criminal complaints against them," he said. "You can see the city has been trying to give businesses plenty of time to comply," McKaughan said. "What we are trying to do is get voluntary - although sometimes hesitantly - compliance" rather than have the city obtain the court orders needed to enter a business and remove the signs, he said. Due to the length of time involved, some business owners believe they should be allowed to keep their signs, McKaughan added. Because some still refuse to comply, Nowyhed's complaint is a valid one, he said. "Compliance by 85% of owners is pretty good, but we're not going to stop there," McKaughan said. "There are some people who are going to delay until they go to court. … Ultimately, those people are going to have to pay (money)" in addition to removing their signs. Businesses that agree to remove their signs without going to court will be given extra time to do so because the goal is compliance, not punishment, McKaughan said. "With all due respect, as a long-time businessman, the city should at least help those of us who have lost our signs" yet must compete against those who are flouting the rules, Nowyhed said. He suggested the addition of signs like those in Acton that advise drivers of food, fuel and lodging services at appropriate exits. Nowyhed said he has spoken with Caltrans officials who seemed to be supportive of such signs if the city would endorse the idea. "It has to be at least four or five businesses participating, and the city has to help," he said. According to McKaughan, Palmdale has been advised that Caltrans allows such signs only at towns and cities with fewer than 50,000 residents. While small businesses are suffering, large businesses are allowed to install huge signs and erect large towers that are visible to freeway motorists, Nowyhed said. "We have been here longer than those businesses," he said. "I don't think that is fair. I think it is discrimination. … I am really frustrated." "If we do not make any sound to let the customers or the city know about our problem, we will disappear," Nowyhed said. Ledford said the size of business's sign is controlled by the size of its building and pointed out that large towers are available only for shopping centers with hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space. Ledford also said that shortly after his election to the City Council in 1990, he was part of a delegation that sought the state's permission for the installation of business-related signs on the Antelope Valley Freeway signs to compensate for the implementation of the new pole-sign ordinance. That permission was denied, so the city came up with a plan to acquire land near freeway exits to install its own signs, Ledford said. "We would work to acquire the property" for signs that could be erected near off-ramps but outside of the state's right-of-way, he said. "The idea was to put their logos on the signs" advertising the businesses at the next exit, Ledford said. "I think we had the program ready, and it's a matter of resurrecting it" for the council's consideration, he said. "I think it has a lot of merit and would allow fairness for everybody within a certain distance of an off-ramp to participate - not just the people who can afford the biggest pole signs," Ledford said. "I would be glad to bring that back for consideration at an upcoming council meeting," he said. "I think the need to tell people what's available at the next off-ramp is a legitimate issue." The plan would allow the city to facilitate business advertising "in a much more aesthetically pleasing fashion that will get them attention," Ledford said. Pole signs for individual businesses are not the answer, the mayor added. "Just imagine every business in the Trade and Commerce Center specific plan with its own pole sign," Ledford said. The mayor was referring to the new shopping centers around 10th Street West and Rancho Vista Boulevard (Avenue P). "That would totally defeat the purpose of each business's pole sign," he said.
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Found this in the newspaper today.. and remembered how a while ago people were asking why the big LACR Sign was taken down..
PALMDALE - Gas station owner Sam Nowyhed says his cooperation with the city's pole-sign regulation is strangling his business.
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