CALABASAS : Owner Seeks 15 Years to Lower Illegal Sign

The owner of a gas station with an illegal freeway sign is asking the Calabasas Planning Commission to give him 15 years to take the sign down.

The commission will vote on the request at its meeting today at 7:30 p.m. at Calabasas City Hall.

Mobil station owner John Barkhordar and Scott Soller, who operates the Red Robin Restaurant next door on Calabasas Road, were ordered last November by the commission to take down their nonconforming freeway signs within 90 days.

The commission later agreed to allow Soller to keep his sign until the city adopts its new sign ordinance, which is now being drafted.

Barkhordar appealed the 90-day order to the City Council, but, according to city officials, withdrew his appeal and returned to the commission to ask for the 15-year extension.

The Mobil station has a 100-foot sign and the Red Robin’s sign is 75 feet tall. The city’s ordinance places a 42-foot height limit on such signs.

“I’d be really surprised if the commission went along with the 15-year extension, but who knows,” Planning Commission member Dave Brown said Tuesday.

Barkhordar argues that he should be given 15 years to take down the sign under the state’s Business and Professions code. Owners say that they need the signs to attract business from the freeway and that business would drop off at least 30% if the signs came down.

Calabasas officials say the two signs are considered to be a test case, because there are several other businesses in the city that have illegal signs.

Twelve businesses in neighboring Agoura Hills are waging a legal battle with that city over the right to keep their pole signs, which the City Council outlawed in 1984.

City officials in both communities say they are just trying to protect the scenic beauty of their cities, not harass business owners.