HomeMy WebLinkAboutPS 97-69; Grubb & Ellis; Sign Permits/Programs (PS) (4)PAUL R. KENNERsoN POST KIRBY NOONAN & SWEATLLP OF COUNSEL - OREGORY A. POST
MICHAEL L. KIRBY. A.P.C.
DAVID J. NOONAN
RICHARD W. SWEAT
R. BRUCE WAYNE. A.P.C.
THOMAS W. BETTLES
SANDRA L. LACKEY
ROSS J. SCHWARTZ
STEVEN 0. DUKE
AMERICA PLAZA, SUITE 1100 MARTHA 0. ANDERSON
DOROTHY A. JOHNSON
MARY L. WALTARI
LAWYERS
600 WEST BROADWAY
SAN DIEGO, CA 92101-3302 JEFFREY A. UNOER
LISE N. WILSON
STEPHANIE SONTAG
DAVID 8. OBERHOLTZER
CHARLES 1. HOOE
NATALIE C. VENEZIA
0. A. SEMERDJIAN
JEFFREY A. HAILE
JAMES R. LANCE
STEVEN W. SANCHEZ
THERESA M. BREHL
JEFFREY P. LENDRUM
TELEPHONE (619) 231-8666
FACSIMILE (619) 231-9593
FACSIMILE (619) 2314360
November 7, 1997
KELLI A. HOKANSON
KRISTEN 1. BRUESEHOFF
JONATHAN A. BOINTON
ETHAN T. BOYER
JODlE MONIOUE M. HARDMEYER BALLARD CANDOR
JAMES R. BALLARD
JOSEPH W. SECONDINE
MOHAMMED I. KHAN
WILLIAM E. O'NELL
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Michael Hozmiller, Planning Director b.J@clPc,
City of Carlsbad
Planning Department
2075 Las Palmas Drive
Carlsbad, CA 92009- 1576
Re: PS 97-80; Grubb & Ellis
ERNEST E. WIDEMAN
1946-1878
Dear Mi-. Hozmiller:
Mike Sullivan of Sign A Rama U.S.A. filed an application on behalf of Grubb & Ellis
Commercial Brokerage for permission to erect a freeway-facing sign on their premises at the
Carlsbad Commercial Center at 5 152 Avenida Encinas. Even though there are similar signs
in similar locations on all other businesses on the freeway side of the Carlsbad Commercial
Center and even though there is a similar sign on the Chamber of Commerce building a short
distance away, the City is rehsing permission to erect such a sign. The stated reason is the
desire not to intensify or exacerbate the situation where the City now concludes that it
improperly approved signs in the past.
The first problem with the City's position is the sign ordinance is not clear on this
issue. I could not see how the statute prohibits such signs.
The second problem is that the City clearly should have told Carlsbad Commercial
Center of the change in interpretation before it represented to perspective tenants that the
freeway signage was available. There is an existing Sign Program for the Carlsbad
Commercial Center and in reliance on that approved program, my client signed a lease.
Before pursuing the technical legal issues of whether a city may do what the City has
done, I urge the City to reconsider the steps it has taken. In that reconsideration, please
understand Grubb & Ellis's primary competitor, CB Commercial, is located elsewhere in that
Center and has such a freeway-facing sign. Further consider that my client would not have
signed a lease for this location had it known of the new position being taken by the City on
such signs.
POST KIRBY NOONAN & SWEAT
Michael Hozmiller, Planning Director
November 7, 1997
Page 2
Finally, the purpose of an approved sign program is to let property owners and tenants
know in advance the kind of signage that is permitted for that location. What the City is
doing now is worse than having no sign program at all. If there were no sign programs, then
prospective tenants would know to go to the City before a lease is signed. The existence of
sign programs gives the property owners and prospective tenants knowledge and a general
ability to rely on the City’s positions on these issues. Reneging on an approved sign program
and penalizing one location in this Center without letting the Center know what it can and
cannot represent to prospective tenants in advance is not how these ordinances should be
administered.
We urge you to treat Grubb & Ellis the same as all other tenants of the Center.
Very truly yours,
of
Post Kirby Noonan & Sweat LLP
RWS/jm
cc: City Attorney of Carlsbad
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