Overhauled Sign Ordinance Approved

Hoping to make the city’s streets more attractive, the City Council has approved a revamped sign program.

The first overhaul of Lake Forest’s sign ordinance since the city was incorporated in 1991 deals with a broad expanse of regulations but will have its greatest effect on the business community.

The posting of temporary banners for sales and other special events will be restricted, while pole signs will be banned.

Council members said they want to clean up major business corridors like El Toro Road, a retail district where various types of signs abound.

“We need to improve the aesthetics of the city,” Councilwoman Ann Van Haun said. The city’s original sign ordinance was based on county standards “that we inherited,” Van Haun said, and “was very loose.”

The new ordinance regulates:

* The time that businesses can post temporary signs to a 30-day period, twice a year.

* The posting of political signs, banning them from public property and limiting them to one posting for each candidate or initiative on private land.

* Garage sale signs, which can now be displayed only on private property.

* Large free-standing signs apart from buildings. Known as monument signs, they are allowed to be no taller than 5 feet.

* Banners displayed by apartment buildings. Complex owners must apply to the city before erecting signs.

* The amount of window space set aside for advertising. Signs will be limited to 25% of the area for each window.