A pizza shop sign that city officials determined was a potential liability comes down
After spending a year in limbo, a pole sign advertising La Cañada Imports Pizza and Deli thought to be standing for more than 45 years has been dismantled to clear the public right-of-way in front of the property.
A work crew seen last Thursday morning had removed the sign and was in the process of demolishing the low wall and pilaster that housed it, as ordered in July 2015 by the La Cañada Flintridge City Council.
The council’s 4-1 ruling last summer came at the behest of planning department staff, who discovered in an unrelated review of the property the features had been built in the city-owned right-of-way and, therefore, constituted a potential liability.
Representatives from Lacy Park Real Estate Investment, which owns the property, petitioned alongside La Cañada Imports owner Bill Kerimo to keep the sign. Kerimo argued its removal would harm his business by diminishing the store’s profile on the northeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and Alta Canyada Road.
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But the council held firm, partly out of risk avoidance and fealty to development goals indicating a shift away from visually intrusive pole signs toward lower profile monument signs. Councilman Len Pieroni voted against removal.
Council members encouraged Kerimo and Lacy Park to work with neighboring tenant 7-Eleven, the owner of a pole sign grandfathered in by the county in 1970, to see if the restaurant might share its space.
On Friday, Community Development Director Robert Stanley said in an email representatives with 7-Eleven have been in touch with his department about a possible redesign. Any plans, Stanley added, would go before the city’s Design Commission for final approval.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
