FOX FAULTS ART-CENTER SIGN CONCEPT\T.O. mayor sees no need for board, cites ordinance.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Citing the city's restrictive sign ordinance and raising a question of need, Mayor Andrew Fox wants the Performing Arts Center's board to rethink a proposal for an 18-foot-tall message board along the Ventura Freeway.

Fox said the proposed sign's location next to the Civic Arts Plaza also could interfere with plans to develop the new government center's private side. The city is in exclusive negotiations with El Segundo-based Kilroy Industries to devise a development proposal.

Fox said the proposed sign appears to violate city regulations that cover such aspects as size, style, materials and even color. And he questioned its rationale:

"I have not seen a demonstrated need for that type of advertising," said Fox, adding that the theaters have done well without a sign. "It's premature for us to even consider that. It's only been around one year; we need at a minimum to wait a couple of years."

Francisco Behr, who served on the ad hoc freeway signage committee of the Performing Arts Center's Board of Governors - said his board will present only the concept to the City Council on Tuesday night.

"There may be other options, but I don't know about them," Behr said.

Last month, the Board of Governors supported the concept of an electronic sign, costing about $467,000 and similar to the one along Thousand Oaks Boulevard, on a knoll next to the freeway.

The idea was to snag the attention of freeway motorists who pass the Civic Arts Plaza without knowing what the building is or what shows are coming up.

The proposed 39-foot-wide, 18-foot-tall sign would announce upcoming events and help local nonprofit performing arts groups develop audiences.

The cost would be covered by corporate sponsors, which would also contribute money toward two other proposed signs identifying the Civic Arts Plaza on the building itself.

Fox wrote in a memo to the council, however, that the city should track theater attendance for another year to determine if more advertising is needed.

In addition, an ad hoc city committee studying ways to improve the controversial Copper Curtain artwork on the southeast side of the government center also is considering putting a sign on the face of the building, Fox said Friday.

Behr said city officials should consider art board committee's idea for signs even if they aren't interested in the electronic sign.

"At this point I think the signage on the building is not something they should postpone," Behr said. "That building still suffers from an identity crisis - people who drive by on the freeway don't know it's the Civic Arts Plaza."

The City Council will meet Tuesday at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Forum Theatre in the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.