EIGHT SIGNS SET TO BE DECLARED NUISANCES.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Most businesses in town have retooled signs that violate the city's sign law, but the 40 or so firms that continue to display nonconforming signs may be running out of time.

City Council members will conduct a public hearing Tuesday night on declaring eight signs a public nuisance and setting in motion the process for their removal, with the owners being billed for the cost.

``The city has been trying to get these folks to remove their signs voluntarily and they have been unwilling to do so, so now the city's taking the next step to get the signs removed,'' said Chandra Spencer, an attorney for the city.

The law, which had a nine-year grace period beginning in 1990, spells out how large, tall and bright signs can be. Ninety-eight percent of the signs in town comply with the law, city officials say, and most of those that do not were built before the city incorporated in 1987. Many illegal signs line key commercial routes along Lyons Avenue, San Fernando Road, Bouquet Canyon Road and Sierra Highway.

The eight Canyon Country properties were not singled out, said senior planner Fred Follstad: The process began in the east part of town and is moving westward.

After the owner of the Santa Clarita Athletic Club declined for years to remove or revise the club's 39-foot-tall lighted sign, visible from Interstate 5, the city got a court order to yank it out and did so in March, for a total cost of $46,592.

The city's removal costs could be capped at $100,000 per sign.

A lawyer whose client faced down the city and won -- settling out of court as the trial date approached -- says Santa Clarita and other cities, such as Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks, make sign law decisions based on preferences, while ignoring the science behind a sign and its ability to communicate.

``I represented a large company in California -- U-Haul. We sued Santa Clarita and our sign is still up,'' said Jeff Aran, legal counsel and government affairs director for the California Sign Association, a trade group based in Sacramento. ``Santa Clarita is one of the worst communities in California when it comes to working with the business community.''

As a compromise, the sign was lowered somewhat, said Aran, who represented the company as a private attorney, not on behalf of the association.

A nationwide burger chain may tangle with the city in court over its star-shaped sign on Soledad Canyon Road.

``We are not able to comment on an ongoing legal matter until we have the opportunity to present to the City Council at next week's meeting,'' said Anne Hallock, a spokeswoman for Carl's Jr.

The city says the Carl's Jr. pylon sign at Soledad Canyon and Crossglade Avenue is illegal because the property fails to meet the minimum lot size or street frontage required.

Some small-business operators, whose clients may be attracted by descriptions on the free-standing signs, worry that smaller signs will have less impact.

``Patients, especially elderly patients, have a difficult time finding our office,'' said Sandra Johnson, a receptionist for Canyon Foot Care, in the Sierra Plaza mini mall at Soledad Canyon and Sierra Highway. ``With the sign being gone, it's going to make it that much more difficult. When you ask patients, they say they live in the neighborhood and saw the sign.''

The center's pylon sign, erected in 1983, is 35 feet tall.

The new sign cannot be larger than 8 feet tall, reducing space for each tenant from 3 feet by 5 feet, to less than 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 feet.

Aran said a state law that allows businesses to retain nonconforming signs when the terrain interferes with their visibility often goes unheeded by cities.

``A few years ago, Agoura Hills sued on the same thing, but the judge ruled on behalf of the business owners -- Denny's Corporation and others,'' he said. ``They won on the grounds that (state law) means what it says.''

The city took some flak for 14 large banners hung around town in July, thanking U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon for introducing legislation against operation of a sand and gravel mine in Soledad Canyon.

Some said the banners appeared to be misleading, a misuse of city funds and an illegal political endorsement of McKeon, who is running for re-election in November.

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These signs along Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country are some the city would like removed.

Kevin Anthony/Special to the Daily News