Denny’s removal a sign of the times on 101 Freeway corridor here

By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

The Denny's restaurant pole sign comes down in Agoura Hills

The familiar but obtrusive looking Denny’s pole sign, a source of longstanding controversy in Agoura Hills, bit the dust last week.

The restaurant and its 110-foot pole sign claiming "Always Open" were eliminated to make way for a new development on Canwood Street just east of Kanan Road. Grading already has begun.

The Denny’s and dozens of other pole signs and billboards along the 101 Freeway raised the city’s ire and led to a series of legal challenges in the last decade. Only a tall McDonald’s sign adjacent the Denny’s and a handful of the shorter billboards remain.

Demolition experts spent the better part of a day figuring out the best way to pull the sign down safely. An attempt to topple it, using a cable pulled by a bulldozer, failed when the line snapped.

Workers cut deeper into the sign’s thick iron base and added a second cable. As the tugging began, the sign teetered and then crashed to the ground amid a huge puff of smoke and debris.

"It’s the end of an era," said Phil Ramuno, a member of the Agoura Hills Planning Commission.

Agoura Hills put a pole sign ban in place in 1985, but several of the city’s business—including Denny’s—initiated a lawsuit that overturned the ordinance and allowed the signs to remain. As the city grew, many of the signs were removed anyway.

Last June, Los Angeles developer Jerry Snyder signed a 10-year agreement with the city to build 336 apartments, two office buildings and three restaurants on a 40-acre site on which Denny’s operated.

Photos by MICHAEL COONS

Workers have since demolished much of the structure, including the sign.

"Like everything else in marketing and advertising, its time has come and gone," said Jeff Reinhardt, mayor of Agoura Hills and owner of a local advertising agency. "The need for these signs has diminished in almost every marketable sense."

City Councilman Ed Corridori, a longtime opponent of the pole signs, said the removal of the Denny’s sign would be a "big improvement visually."

Several residents watched with anticipation during the sign removal, including Dick Crowley, a resident of the nearby Hillrise homes.

"It’s sort of a pollution thing really," Crowley said. "Why can’t they just use those freeway [monument] signs? There are other ways of getting the information across."

The Denny’s and its sign were constructed in 1967.