Sign Board Bounces Ball, Ices Penguin and Sends Bear Into Hibernation

By Jorge Casuso and Anne LaJeunesse

The penguin at the Lincoln Boulevard freeway exit will likely get iced, the Travel Lodge's sleep-walking bear on Pico Boulevard will go into hibernation and the Union 76 ball will get bounced.

Those are among the prominent signs the Meritorious Sign Review Board voted to erase from the city's landscape at its first meeting Wednesday night. The decisions, which will be reviewed by staff before a final vote is taken, can be appealed to the City Council.

The five-member board, however, voted to spare more than 75 signs that violated a 15-year-old city ordinance because they had historic, cultural or aesthetic merit. The ordinance -- scheduled to go into effect on April 15 -- bans more than 1,000 freestanding, roof, upper level, projecting and off premise signs.

The signs the board voted to spare include the Fosters Freeze sign on Pico, the auto dealership's Jaguar on Wilshire Boulevard and, predictably, the Norm's and Rae's restaurant signs, as well as the curved sign at the entrance to the pier (among the 21 nominated by staff).

"From my point of view, I wanted to err on the safe said," said Ken Breisch, a planning commissioner who sits on the board. "Once the sign is gone, we're not going to be able to retrieve it. There's something to be said for diversity and spontaneity and the layering of history. We have a danger of erasing a lot of our past."

The four-hour meeting was in essence a trip down Santa Monica's memory lane, with a few nostalgic pit stops for an ice cream and an old-fashioned haircut and emotional sidetracks to businesses started three generations back.

Valery Shalom, who owns the Baskin Robbins on Wilshire, pleaded with the board to spare her 1959 rooftop sign with blue neon and circling white flashing lights.

"It's a fun sign," Shalom said. "Customers said they got excited seeing the sign, and now their kids get excited. It's an icon to Southern California, as well as Santa Monica. It's visually very out there and grabs at you."

Despite the emotional plea, echoed by a supporter, the board voted 3 to 2 to deny the appeal, saying it was a corporate sign that was not unique to the city. Using the same criteria, they nixed McDonald's Golden arches and other fast food chain signs and the towering freestanding gas station signs.

Barber Lionel Caseres urged the board to spare his old-fashioned barber pole, which has stood on Montana Avenue for 35 years. The board agreed, and asked staff to look into the possibility of sparing all the city's barber poles that stood and sometimes twirled when the ordinance was passed in 1984.

"All barber poles should be included," said board member R. Scott Page. "Everything is so Vidal Sassoon, you don't see many barber poles anymore."

(The board asked staff to all investigate church signs with the cross to determine if taking them down would infringe on religious rights.)

The owner of the Gaslight succeeded in urging the board to spare the gaslight-shaped sign that has stood in front of the business since a ruler of the Elks erected it in 1962. Howard Okomura didn't have such luck with the sign for Samo Wheel and Brake, which his father started in 1963.

"The yellow arrow at the back, that's the part I like," he said. "It isn't painted. It's ugly like that. I can paint it." Without the sign, Okomura said, it will be hard for motorists to see his business tucked 150 feet back.

Going through lengthy lists of signs nominated by the board members, the board seemed bent on making sure an overlooked sign wasn't erased for good. In the end, the board asked staff - which had recommended saving 21 signs -- to look at more than 60 others signs that could be worthy of remaining a part of the city's landscape.

The board will meet on January 26 to cast the final votes and hear from business owners, as well as any member of the public, who feels a sign should remain as part of Santa Monica.

Chamber of Commerce vice president Dan Ehrler commended the board.

"You've done an extraordinary job moving to the next stage," Ehrler said. "There are some I was crazy with that you denied."

"I'm glad that we're looking at a lot of signs," Breisch said after the vote. But he added, "I'm a little concerned that we are pushing this thing rapidly. I don't want to make these decisions so cut and dry. Once they're gone, they're gone."

Stay tuned for a complete list of the signs nominated by the board.