County staff to develop community monument signage program

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

County of San Diego staff will be developing a program for community monument signage.

The program will initially be for communities in the Fifth Supervisorial District. Jim Desmond is the county supervisor for the Fifth District, but all five Board of Supervisors members voted to support the program Oct. 5. The motion allocates $92,000 from Desmond's Neighborhood Reinvestment Program budget to fund staff hours and a consultant if necessary, to develop the program for the Fifth District, and to present options to the Board of Supervisors for approval within 180 days.

"I received multiple requests in my district for monument type of signs," Desmond said. "Each of the communities they represent have a unique identity they're proud of and they want to acknowledge."

The signs would be within county road right-of-way and in compliance with the county Zoning Ordinance section regarding community identification signs. The Zoning Ordinance provisions were intended to apply to non-profit or private organizations, but the county will implement and construct community monument signs.

The Board of Supervisors will approve monument signs after input from the relevant community planning group or community sponsor group is provided. County staff will prioritize communities which have actively requested and pursued identification signs for their community.

"The program's going to be driven by community input and design and location of the entry monuments and/or arches," Desmond said.

The signs must not obscure a driver's line-of-sight or create a safety hazard for drivers, pedestrians, or bicyclists, and the location must not impact sensitive habitat.

The existing ordinance allows signs to be either single-faced or double-faced. Neither face on a ground-mounted sign can exceed 100 square feet and neither face on a street-spanning sign can exceed 225 square feet. The height of a ground-mounted sign is limited to 20 feet while a street-mounted sign is allowed to be up to 30 feet in height and must have at least 16 feet of clearance between the lowest part of the sign and the highest ground elevation directly below.