Banners will stay through season

Deirdre Newman

Banners that have been the backdrop to countless youth sports games

flew center stage Monday as city leaders wrestled with how to pacify

neighbors who find nothing playful about them.

The banners recognize team sponsors, whose donations allow the

players to participate at an affordable rate. Opponents of the

banners claim they cause blight.

More than two hours of public testimony illustrated the emotion

both sides feel about the banners. Many said they were disheartened

that complaints about the banners have consumed so much time and

energy.

Ultimately, the City Council directed staff members to work with

Councilwoman Libby Cowan to refine proposed regulations so they fall

under the city’s existing sign ordinance. Council members agreed that

the banners could stay up for the rest of the current Little League

season.

“Just the fact that we spent the last two-and-a-half hours [on

this], it’s a very sad day,” said a discouraged Mayor Gary Monahan.

“For the city to get involved with this ... if it’s not broke, don’t

fix it.”

Many involved with Little League claimed just that -- that there

is nothing wrong with the banners that need to be remedied. The

banners have hung on the fences of California Elementary and TeWinkle

Middle schools for about eight years and no one ever complained about

them until recently, said John Stevens, a member of the Costa Mesa

American Little League board of directors.

“I think this is a big tempest in a teapot,” Stevens said. “If

[opponents] had their way, there wouldn’t be children out there

playing ball.”

But banner opponents, many of whom are part of the Mesa Verde

Villa Homeowners Assn., said they’re not against the kids, they are

just tired of seeing the banners day in and day out.

“I’m willing to have the banners up during the games,” Joseph

Moody said. “Otherwise we’re the ones looking at them and that

doesn’t benefit the sponsors, I assure you.”

Last July, members of the Mesa Verde Villa condominiums, near the

schools, raised a host of issues relating to the school fields’ use,

including questioning whether the banners complied with the city’s

sign ordinance. Staff members’ research into the existing sign

regulations showed they didn’t cover banners displayed on athletic

fields or school grounds.

Recreation staff members proposed revising the city’s code to

include athletic fields under the existing sign rules. But they

suggested that policies, procedures and standards for putting up and

removing the banners be covered by an administrative regulation, not

the existing sign rules.

The proposed rules also changed the definition of an “athletic

field” to make it much broader, which some residents took issue with

as well.

“The law defines every park as an athletic field,” council gadfly

Martin Millard said. “It will be a horrible mess throughout the city.

You will have a rebellion.”

Others brought up the city’s prior problems with a real estate

sign ordinance that had to be rewritten by the council after it was

deemed to be unconstitutional by giving certain sign privileges only

to real estate companies.

“It seems like a replay of the whole Realtor thing,” former Mayor

Sandy Genis said. “If so, it’s a slippery slope.”

The council’s decision was guided by Cowan, who felt the new rules

covering banners should be written more specifically within the

existing sign law.

“I’m saddened this would come before us, but once it does, we do

have regulations to follow,” Cowan said. “The only thing that saves

this community from 24/7 signs in the public right-of-way is the fact

that we carefully crafted [this ordinance].”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.