Mission Viejo Being Trashed – Again
by Dale Tyler

Once again, our city is under attack from by the very people who you would expect to be looking out for our city's quality of life. On Monday, June 4, 2012, the Council will consider allowing extremely large electronic signs up and down the freeway from Avery to La Paz.

These are not small signs that are being proposed. At the Kaleidoscope Center located on Crown Valley at I-5, the building owner wants to place eight LED displays totaling 7,392 square feet in their current proposal. This is many times the size of the garish sign used by the auto dealers at Lake Forest and I-5. In addition, they want to have 13,720 square feet of banner and other fixed signage for a total of 21,112 square feet. However, they state they want up to 30 percent of the building faces to have signs installed. That adds up to nearly 28,464 square feet of signage (per the Kaleidoscope plan submitted to the city council),.Editor’s note: the plan is 3.6MB and will take 2 minutes to download.

The proposal would also permit a number of other signs along the freeway starting at Avery Road and going all the way north to LaPaz. One could easily imagine 100,000 square feet of signs along the freeway. Is this the kind of City image we want to project to motorists and visitors?

Until now, the types of signs being proposed have been outlawed in Mission Viejo. We have one of the most restrictive sign ordinances in south Orange County, although it has been substantially weakened lately by careless staff and by Ury and Leckness on the council.

Years ago, when McDonald's wanted to open a store in Mission Viejo, they were told that their trademark illuminated arches were not acceptable because they would be “out of character” for Mission Viejo. As a very large corporation, McDonald's could have fought the ordinance, but they decided to be good neighbors.

On the other hand, Kaleidoscope has proved anything but a good neighbor. Initially constructed using a loan from the city, they defaulted on that obligation of nearly $2 million. Next there were the constant maintenance problems like the escalators being broken, which indicates faulty construction and management that was doing as little as possible to make the center a safe place. We had problems with gangs and youth violence. Then came the rampant violations of Mission Viejo's existing sign code, which continue to the day. I have been told by City Staff, that they have been ordered by Dennis Wilberg not to enforce our sign ordinances at the Kaleidoscope. This scofflaw attitude continues to this day. The biggest offender is Howie's Game Shack which has a number of illegal banners visible from the street in their windows in violation of city laws. However, they have the support of the City Manager and several members of the city council.

Now these same scofflaws are requesting the city to completely abandon its prohibition on LED, banner and video (think Jumbotron) signs and allow us to turn our city into a trashy display haven. These signs are permitted in no other locations south of the El-Toro “Y” according to the staff report.

A number of our neighbors have learned of Kaleidoscope and Ury's plan to trash our city's image and they are objecting. In particular, Laguna Niguel has raised concerns expressed by those nearest the Kaleidoscope that the constant blinking and bright lights will disturb their “quiet enjoyment” of their properties. People who live across from the freeway center and further north will also likely be affected as more and more of these signs are put in place.

It is possible that this extremely large proposal is just a “stalking horse” intended to be abandoned in favor of smaller LED and video signs. We must not allow this to happen. No LED or video signs of any type should be permitted in Mission Viejo. We need to preserve the “California Promise” against those who would sell the city out for campaign cash.

Also, we have a message to those out of town interests who parade themselves in front of the city council while they wrap them selves in the cloak of formerly legitimate organizations. “Go home and stay home”. Your kind of “pay to play” advocacy is unwelcome and dishonest.

Please let the City Council know how you feel about this sign proposal by emailing them. Also, please consider attending the Council meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, June 4.