RB Welcome Sign Debate Heats Up: Business Owners Reject Traditional Signage

Downtown Rancho Bernardo will have contemporary signage, no matter which design style is eventually chosen for the community's controversial new welcome sign, the head of a downtown RB business group said Tuesday.

And the opinion of the RB Community Council about the welcome sign issue doesn't matter because the group is "irrelevant," said Ron Bamberger, head of the Bernardo Town Center Property Owners Association. The choice to have contemporary business signage comes from the association, but the thoughts about the Community Council are his alone, Bamberger said.

Replacing the community's welcome sign that was destroyed last year by a motorist has become a hot button issue in RB in recent weeks, as the results of a vote for a new design came in—and then were essentially disregarded.

The Refresh RB Committee, which is helping coordinate the project, thought the results were too close to call and is now planning for a runoff between the traditional design, which received the most votes of three choices, and a new contemporary design being made by the head of the Rancho Bernardo Business Association. Bamberger is part of the committee.

The idea was to have the welcome sign, paid for by the insurance settlement from the destructive accident, match business signage in downtown RB paid for by business owners. Some have said they believe the business community is pushing for a runoff so that a contemporary design will have another chance to get the most votes.

But Bamberger said the owners have already decided to have a contemporary look, and paid a professional graphic designer an estimated $20,000-plus for the design. That look became Concept A for the welcome sign vote, with some modifications from Larry McIntyre, head of the Rancho Bernardo Business Association, McIntyre said.

The question now is whether the welcome sign will match what the business owners plan to put up once legislation is passed to allow them to complete the project, Bamberger said.

The Community Council is opposed to a runoff because it goes against the initial community vote for Concept C, which received 37 percent of 824 votes cast, said Frank Auwarter, the community council representative on the Refresh RB Committee. The majority of people in a smaller, preliminary vote last year also chose a traditional option, he said.

Bamberger and other committee members have argued that the small number of total votes compared to RB's 40,000-or so population, and only having a 30 vote gap between the top two vote-getters, make the results inconclusive.

"I don't think the [gap] of 30 votes in our case means that the community has spoken. ...By and large the community is equally interested in all three," Bamberger said.

Concepts A and B, both contemporary looks, received 28.4 and 34 percent, respectively, of the vote. Concept C, the traditional design most like that of the destroyed sign, received 37.6 percent of the vote. Some believe A and B split the vote between those who wanted a contemporary design, leading to C getting the most votes.

Throughout the process, which is being facilitated by San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio's office, the message put forth had been that the design with the most votes would be the winner.

But Bamberger said he hasn't seen the voting as the end-all-be-all of the design choice, but rather as a means of gauging what people like. The committee is in an advisory role and the vote is just one tool in the design process, he said.

That view seems to differ from that of other committee members, including the chair, who have spoken of the runoff as a way to make a final decision. The Community Council and RB Planning Board also will need to approve the chosen design, but it's unclear what will happen if they disagree.

Now that the Community Council is taking a stand against the runoff, Bamberger has said that much like the voting results—unreliable because of the small sample size—the Community Council can't be counted on to speak for RB at large.

"I think they have absolutely no relevance to the community of Rancho Bernardo," Bamberger said of the council, citing the low voter turnout for their elections and the fact that they count their own ballots.

Robin Kaufman, president of the RB Community Council, said voting may be low, but people rely on the council to represent them in key issues such as safety.

"Who do they turn to? The Community Council," Kaufman said, adding that the group is able to make a large impact, citing the more than $100,000 raised for the fire station renovation project.

Voting for HOAs and regular government elections is low, too, Kaufman said, but those elected are able to speak on behalf of their constituents. Often, few to none of the council's 20 seats are contested in elections, which may lead to low turnout, such as in 2009 when only 273 votes were cast.

The Refresh RB Committee is next set to meet March 8.