Sign not so jiffy

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Councilwoman Norma Glover thought the designer face

lift of Mariner’s Mile would be a sure thing when City Council members

approved new guidelines for the strip of road in her district.

Then, planning commissioners sidestepped the framework’s guidelines at

their Dec. 7 meeting and approved a sign for a new Jiffy Lube station

that didn’t fit the document’s recommendations.

Concerned that a 6-foot-tall and 4-foot-wide block on the ground would

become the first new sign on Mariner’s Mile after the framework’s

adoption, Glover called for a City Council review of the commission’s

decision. Council members will address the issue at their Jan. 9 meeting.

“People in this city want beautification on Mariner’s Mile,” Glover

said Monday. “And I am determined to make that happen. . . . We either do

business as usual or we have a plan that’s been put together by community

members, business owners and a professional architect and we work toward

it. I’m trying to take that route to improve” Mariner’s Mile.

Glover said she planned to meet with city officials today to discuss

the matter and get more information on the sign, as well as the

commission’s decision.

“If the Planning Commission cannot live by the design framework, we

may need to go back and see if there is another way to administer” the

framework, she said.

But Planning Commission Chairman Edward Selich said the Jiffy Lube

station’s size had unfortunately forced commission members to make an

exception to the framework with the first application.

“The first [project] out of the box didn’t fit that particular

framework,” said Selich, adding that commissioners believed a taller sign

would have appeared too imposing in the available space.

Selich said he had pointed out the dilemma to his colleagues before

making a decision.

“Personally, I find that lowering the sign is a solution,” he said at

the Dec. 7 meeting.

“But it seems that when we approved the Mariner’s Mile sign

framework,” planning commissioners voted to encourage tall-standing signs

rather than those closer to the ground, Selich added.

Planning commissioners approved the framework in September before

passing it on to the City Council for final approval.

City officials said the sign proposed by Jiffy Lube representatives

had not met framework guidelines. At 15 feet tall and 6 feet wide, the

sign would have been wider than the 3 feet and 9 inches allowed for signs

that high.

James Campbell, the senior planner at the city who worked on the

project, said the sign’s fate was now in the hands of council members.

“They left it for staff to work it out,” Campbell said. “Obviously,

with the decision recalled for review by Mrs. Glover, everything’s put on

hold.”