Photograph by Robert Scheer
According to Saratoga's Village Plan, neon signs are not supposed to be in downtown Saratoga, but they are not banned by the city's sign ordinance.
By Sarah Lombardo
Team Saratoga has its eye on Saratoga's signs. The research team, formed by the Saratoga Business Development Council last summer to promote business in the city, is taking a look at signs around Saratoga in an effort to find out what's working and what's just taking up space.
The ultimate goal of the project is to create, with the help and advice of Saratoga businesses, a new sign ordinance, said Dick Wood, an investment adviser in Saratoga and a member of Team Saratoga.
"I think the present signage program seems pretty restrictive and not realistic enough," Wood said. "There are individual differences between centers' needs, and the present signage policy is too restrictive."
Armed with a video camera and good walking shoes, some team members walked through Saratoga and taped all the signs seen in the city. Team Saratoga members watched the tape and chose signs they thought were good and those they didn't.
Wood said the project is only in its preliminary stages, but that the team has met with the Planning Commission to discuss its plans and watch the tape. Woods said the object of the project is not to create more signs around the city, but to have signs that do what they are intended to do: inform and attract shoppers.
"It's flexibility, it's appropriateness, it's how can we benefit our businesses. That's what we're after, and I think that if we can achieve that, we will benefit the entire community," Wood said.
Paul Curtis, community development director and staff liaison to the team, said this is not the first time the sign ordinance has come under scrutiny.
The last time the ordinance was in the public eye, Curtis said, was about three years ago, when a revised ordinance made it all the way to the City Council and public hearings. But he said that when the council looked into it, the revised policy basically only called for more and bigger signs. In addition, a plan was in the works for the gateway, the stretch of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road between the city limit and the Village. Curtis said the combination of ongoing projects and the lack of public attendance at the public hearings led to not many changes being made. The result was that the only thing to come out of the attempt was the use of banners for special events.
Curtis said the lack of public interest in a sign ordinance was not unusual. He said even now the majority of feedback he receives regarding signs comes from merchants who either don't understand certain parts of the regulation or think they have been unfairly targeted for an infraction of the ordinance.
"I guess the last sign I really got a lot of calls and letters [from the public] about was that giant pumpkin thing," Curtis said, referring to the public outcry both for and against a giant inflated pumpkin in a pumpkin patch on Saratoga Avenue in October. "Our sign ordinance has been working, but from the non-business standpoint, it doesn't seem to be a big problem."
But from a business standpoint, Curtis said, merchants say the ordinance isn't sufficient.
Some issues that Curtis said he thinks will be addressed in a revised ordinance are the use of neon, window signs and monument signs. Curtis said the current ordinance leads to some confusion. For example, the Village Plan, a plan adopted by the city for the future of the Village, recommends banning neon signs, Curtis said, but there is no city ordinance against it. And that means the neon rule can't be enforced.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 19, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.