Petrovich sees value of compromise over shopping center sign

It is amazing what can be accomplished through compromise to meet all parties’ objectives with a positive result when animosity and personal attacks are not present.

Crocker Drive residents, the Hollywood Park Neighborhood Association and people living in Curtis Park not associated with SCNA activists suggested that we move the extended-height monument sign in the Crocker Village shopping center 180 feet north against the anchor building under construction, away from the Sutterville Road overpass, and 200 feet west, against the railroad tracks and further away from all homes.

After many experiments, I agreed with these suggestions for the sign that would now not be visible from any home.

Clearly, people living on Crocker Drive should have the most say in this matter as people living the closest to the project and having purchased their homes with the full knowledge of the project. All the homeowners we worked with recognize the safety issue of people needing to understand where the shopping center is so as not to jam up an already overly congested Sutterville Road. But for this sign, customers would miss the left turn into the project and need to travel through Curtis Park itself, something I want to avoid.

It is a reasonable compromise to move the sign further away in two directions from any source of perceived sensitivity to make people feel better about it and to be sure it’s a non-issue. The sign’s new proposed location is 750 feet from the nearest brownstones on Crocker Drive. It is also more than 850 feet from the closest home in Curtis Park.

I am hopeful that city staff is not influenced by the unethical and hateful reporting The Sacramento Bee did on the sign, describing it as “looming” over homes. This is what set off a mob outrage unnecessarily. It’s this sort of unethical reporting by The Bee that has created so much angst and headache for all involved. Curtis Park residents are also being misled by their own Viewpoint newspaper as was the constant mission for the past 15 years.

I honestly don’t know how the activists maintain their hatred for everything associated with this project and me, including well-vested property rights. They are so blind in their hatred they fight efforts that will actually help the Curtis Park neighborhood, such as erecting a sign that virtually guarantees no one will drive through Curtis Park when they miss the turn into the shopping center due to the huge overpass blocking the project. They are working against the best interest of the people they represent to satisfy their personal animus.

There are about 2,000 households in Curtis Park. The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association has only 500 members, many who don’t agree with SCNA’s attacks on this project. The SCNA board is attacking this sign dishonestly, without the facts, is misleading its constituents, and is doing so without any communication with me.

As for the height and design, the sign will be constructed of a single-legged steel beam made to look like an old industrial beam during the Industrial Revolution. It incorporates the elegant scrollwork that is on top of the existing arch over Crocker Drive’s entrance. It has a cross beam of the single pole to hold the placards.

The total signage for tenants does not exceed the square footage allowed by the city code for a typical 35- foot monument sign virtually anywhere in Sacramento. It is identical to the signs that are approved by right except it is 30 feet taller so it can be seen over the 35-foot-tall Sutterville Road overpass that blocks the visibility to the left-turn access into the shopping center.

Absent this massive overpass and visual impediment, this application would not be necessary nor would it be made.

By Paul Petrovich

Paul Petrovich is president of Petrovich Development Co. This is a condensed and edited version of a letter he sent to a city official.

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