RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The Tuesday, August 24 City Council Meeting ended up being cut down for time. With talk about a chainsaw wielding local businessman how could it not?

After strained discussion about office, retail and industrial real estate sign usage in the city, Vice Mayor Terry"'noting the absence of Council Member Linda Budge and the impending early departure of Council Member Siri Pulipati"'decided to push full discussion of the two other planned topics of the night to a future date. Mayor Garret Gatewood was also not present at this Special Meeting/Work Session.

“The signs drew negative impact on his ability to do business,” said Council Member David Sander who recalled the plight of a local businessman who found signs promoting the availability of his space that should have been taken down were prompting people to think his business was failing or had moved. After repeated pleas to have them removed, he finally took matters into his own hands"'via a chainsaw"'and took them down himself.

Some have viewed the proliferation of commercial real estate signs as a blight on the city landscape mainly due to signage never being taken down, especially those tagged with graffiti.  After direction to do so from the Council a year ago, city staff had met with the local real estate community to discuss current regulations on placement and potential code amendments.

City staff reported that many of the individuals they spoke with had little knowledge about current ordinances and the conversation, in the words of Economic Development Manager Amanda Norton, actually prompted some to “realize the signs needed to come down.” Those who staff talked to pointed to slow communications between the commercial real estate community and outside organizations hired to remove signs, after effects of COVID-19 and general human forgetfulness.

The real estate professionals spoken to also relayed back to staff the leadup time to market a property which includes the signs in question from the time space is available or a tenant chooses not to renew can be anywhere from six to nine months and then remain for up to 30 days after sale or lease. Staff continually mentioned the community who they engaged expressed their commitment to work with the city to foster a successful ongoing collaboration and partnership beneficial to both parties.

The proposed code amendments included no more than one on-site for sale or lease sign and permitted per property frontage and only to be displayed for the period while the unit, building, or property is being marketed for sale or lease ending 30 days after it is sold or leased. As well, the sign would be pushed from the right of way from formerly three feet to 5 feet.

During public comment, resident Helen Whelan Bashaw brought up concern about the signs as easy targets of graffiti of which both the city and the real estate community expressed their steadfast desire to address defacement swiftly.

When Council weighed in, Councilmember Sander relayed another negative anecdote about giving a tour of Rancho Cordova to an outsider who felt the city was failing as a business location"'due to the abundance of commercial real estate signs. He also initially felt the research and engagement staff had performed was unsuccessful. “I don’t think this has progressed things for us in any way,” he bluntly said.

Sander felt a loophole existed in the code language that could possibly allow for someone to put up a sign for ten years under the guise of marketing. He also showed annoyance over the “lack of appearance” from the real estate community at the meeting.

To combat his unease, Chamber of Commerce CEO Diann Rogers “zoomed” in to say the real estate community was very willing to do what was needed to get rid of any problems and justified the lack of industry representation to not weigh down the night’s discussion with multiple appearances allowing staff to speak for them. Despite Roger’s words, stakeholder Chris Lemmon did appear offering himself as a resource to answer any questions and gave kudos to the staff and the real estate community.

Vice Mayor Terry said he “never had one comment” about sign misuse from people and expressed a disinterest in using time to discuss the subject even going so far as to suggest Sander and Councilmember Linda Budge work with staff in a subcommittee instead.

Progress was made however with Council ultimately asking for some clarification on the marketing leadup time put into code verbiage which Economic Development Manager Norton agreed to and would bring back the topic with updates as an action item at a later date. Even Councilmember Sander appeared satisfied with the direction the discussion took.

The positive outcome was balanced with the inability to give full discussion to the night’s other two topics: Reinstating a Planning Commission and Parking Policy Updates and Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. There was enough time solely for the former’s staff report to be presented but without discussion and a complete move of the latter to a future date.