OFFICIALS TO WEIGH BUYING MARQUEE IN AGOURA HILLS.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Tired of the assortment of signs at Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Kanan Road, the Agoura Hills City Council will discuss today whether to invest in a more permanent and elegant marquee to advertise community events.

A proposed ordinance would allow low-profile, monument-style signs that could notify passers-by of civic, charitable and other non-commercial messages. Residents and city officials said they hope the ordinance would alleviate the myriad signs accumulating on the overburdened knoll at the popular intersection.

``Almost anything is better than what we currently have, which is a hodgepodge of homemade signs,'' said council member Louise Rishoff.

``Whenever there's a concert or a book sale or any sort of community event, it's posted at the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Kanan Road,'' she said. ``I'm happy to look at a better way to go about this.''

Several years ago, the city responded to the growing number of nonprofit groups that wanted to advertise their events by allowing two temporary signs at the Thousand Oaks-Kanan intersection. Groups had to wait their turn for a two-week spot on one of the signs.

``That hasn't worked very well at all. People have been posting their signs just the same,'' Rishoff said. ``And with First Amendment issues, we're reluctant to say they can't. So we just want to find a better way to do this.''

The idea of allowing permanent signs grew out of mounting concern by local groups eager to find a free forum to get out the word about community events.

Last February, the city's Community Services Advisory Committee proposed a permanent marquee at Thousand Oaks and Kanan. The Planning Commission liked the proposal and also recommended amending the current sign ordinance to allow permanent community event signs on private and public property.

But city officials also note that they would have no control over the content of messages posted by groups. And they have expressed concern about being held liable for offensive messages posted by groups with as much legal right as anyone to use a city-sponsored sign.

``If we had an open sign, then there would be no basis to say no to anyone. The city would have no authority to deny a message based on sponsorship or message content. We would have to allow everyone who want to to post a message - including hate groups and people with controversial messages,'' said Amanda Susskind, city attorney.

Susskind recommended limiting the sign to events co-sponsored by the city, local school districts or other governmental entities. While such a limit on the sign usage may not halt the litter of signs by nonprofit groups eager to post their events, it would retain the city's right to monitor the message content.

``I think it comes down to how much money these signs are going to cost us and who exactly will be allowed to utilize them. There are a whole series of First Amendment issues we need to clear up,'' said Mayor Denis Weber, who said he is still uncertain about his position on amending the sign ordinance.

``I don't know if it's worth the problems it could cause. Is it worth spending what money we have on a permanent sign?'' he said.

``And I don't know if we want to get embroiled in radical groups who want to post signs that may be offensive. This is something we really have to think about,'' he said.