Grover Beach plans to crack down on signs 

The days of large, unattractive signs will soon be over for Grover Beach business owners as the city recently beefed up its sign policy.

During the Feb. 26 City Council meeting, council members decided to move forward with a previously approved sign regulation policy that was put on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic. It prohibits the use of feather flag signs and inflatable signs and restricts the use of A-frame signs in city rights of way.

click to enlarge

• File Photo By Samantha Herrera
• LOCAL PROTESTING Some Grover Beach residents have formed a group called Grover H2O and oppose the Central Coast Blue project and higher water rates. Now they say that the city's sign regulation policy is an attack on their movement.

"A primary objective of the signage regulations update was to streamline the approval process and provide greater certainty for business owners, which aligns with the city's 2023 to 2025 goals for economic development and community development," Grover Beach Senior Planner Kyle Bell said.

Those goals aim to strengthen and maintain a business-friendly environment; implement strategies that build upon existing efforts to keep businesses around and attract businesses and commercial development, especially on West Grand Avenue; expedite permit processing; and promote tourism and hotel development, according to a Feb. 26 staff report.

While the sign policy was initially adopted in October 2019, the city temporarily put it on hold due to the pandemic, as staff needed to divert resources and attention to other priorities.

Grover Beach City Manager Matthew Bronson told New Times that the only change made to the city's sign regulation since its 2019 adoption was that City Council directed staff on Feb. 26 to conduct outreach to local businesses and residents, especially those on Grand Avenue.

"This will help provide staff with a foundation to make a recommendation to council on which policies and regulations may need to be modified to meet the needs of the community," he said.

The regulations also ban abandoned signs; signs that simulate traffic signs or signals in color or design; and those that use of words, symbols, or characters that interfere with, mislead, or confuse pedestrian or vehicular traffic, including signage that is highly reflective, according to the city's Development Code. Digital display or LED messaging signs that are animated, moving, flashing, blinking, reflecting, glaring, or revolving are also banned.

However, some Grover Beach residents who are part of Grover H2O, a group that opposes the Central Coast Blue project and higher water rates, said that the sign policy is an attack on their movement.

"I just think the timing is interesting because we just recently had a wave of signs for the campaign we have going," one resident said during public comment. "I also did notice when reading over the sign policy that there was something in it about if a sign somehow could be misconstrued as a road sign or any type of hazard, and it's interesting because our signs are yellow."

Grover H2O started after the Grover Beach City Council voted 3-2 on Dec. 11, 2023, to increase water rates by almost 20 percent over the next four years to help fund the city's portion of the Central Coast Blue water reclamation project.

The cost estimate for Central Coast Blue—which aims to recycle wastewater and inject it into the groundwater basin to create a more sustainable water supply for Arroyo Grande, Pismo Beach, and Grover Beach—recently increased from $55 million to $93 million due to inflation and other factors, according to previous New Times reporting.

However, Bronson said that the city wouldn't target yard signs or other kinds of signs based on color alone and that staff would clean up the policy so it doesn't continue to confuse residents.

"This section stipulates that any deliberate obstruction of the city's signage related to the traffic sign, signal, or similar, as to interfere or mislead the public, would be prohibited, and subject to immediate removal," he said.

Bronson also said business owners who don't follow the sign regulation policy will receive a warning first, and if the violation isn't corrected, they would face administrative fines. Δ