_{Thumbnail photo by Heather Polen}

A month after local bowling alley owner Dr. John Kirk argued that his digital sign is both a service to the community and generates revenue for his business, the Crescent City Council decided it could stay.

Four councilors who attended the Feb. 17 meeting approved an ordinance that sets restrictions on signs like the one on the Tsunami Lanes Bowling Alley. Councilors also agreed that digital signs could advertise other businesses, services or events.

But at the request of Mayor Isaiah Wright, concerns regarding billboards and other off-site advertising will be considered before the full Council at a future meeting. His colleague, Jason Greenough, was absent.

“Based on everything we heard from the public, we probably need to bring back off-site and just general advertising back to the Council for discussion,” Wright said. “We need to talk a little bit more.”

The new digital sign ordinance restricts the size to 32 square feet. They can only be located in the commercial zone along the city’s highway corridor. This includes L and M streets, U.S. 101 from 9th Street north to the city limits as well as Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard. Digital signs must also be 1,750 linear feet apart, according to the new ordinance.

Wier noted that the ordinance would have addressed offsite advertising in general, which is another major change from the city’s current regulations. Before councilors elected to remove offsite advertising from the proposed ordinance, Wier said those signs could be up to 100 square feet and could “go on basically any lot.”

Crescent City’s efforts to revitalize its downtown area are part of those discussions. Just before the Council approved the ordinance, City Manager Eric Wier told them roughly $180,000 in Economic Development Administration dollars was on its way to the city. That money will pay for the second phase of its Downtown-Specific Masterplan, which includes looking at architectural standards, signs and the overall streetscape, he said.

“They’ve notified us of the accepted application,” Wier told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday, referring to the federal grant. “We’re expecting the award documents to be executed some time in April.”

Crescent City has been working with Don Arambula, of Crandall Arambula, on its Downtown-Specific Masterplan since June 2025. The first phase of this 20-year strategic plan focused on the number of retail and residential units the downtown could support as well as how to build up the infrastructure to allow for those uses.

Arambula presented the first phase of the Downtown-Specific Masterplan at the City Council’s meeting Jan. 20. He also weighed in on the digital sign discussion, saying that visual quality has an economic development impact.

“You’ve got a lot of digital clutter today and it comes down to a value choice — when we’re seeing 1.5 to 2 million people come into Crescent City, what are their expectations?” Arambula said. “Are they expecting a Las Vegas-style strip with digital signs everywhere unabated or are they expecting something that is more in tune with the redwoods to the sea theme?”

With the EDA dollars still uncertain at the Jan. 20 meeting, Arambula said the City Council could either ban digital signs or create strong regulations starting with distances, sign locations and “think about traffic safety and other issues you would have.”

Kirk, who also owns Port O’Pints and Port O’Pints South Beach in addition to the bowling alley, urged the City Council to look to Caltrans for ideas on what could be a happy medium. 

“Caltrans has their own limit that I think would help us very easily,” he said. “I think they limit the signage for anything like a digital sign to be one every 1,000 or 1,500 feet. That’s going to … limit the amount of signage and you can determine where signs can go or can’t go based on a blight concern.”

Kirk had installed his 32 square-foot digital sign on the bowling alley after obtaining a permit about a year ago. According to City Attorney Martha Rice, the permit application didn’t indicate that the sign would depict rotating images, flashing lights, changing color intensity and offsite advertising — characteristics that weren’t allowed in the Crescent City Municipal Code.

Rice told the City Council in November that Kirk had applied for an amendment to the existing sign ordinance. The Planning Commission on Oct. 16, 2025 recommended new regulations stating that digital signs could only contain static messages that would change no more than once every 15 seconds. The Planning Commission also proposed a maximum size of 100 square feet.

Councilors on Nov. 17 decided to limit the size of any digital signs within city limits to 32 square feet.

Kirk said his sign has intrinsic and extrinsic value. It allows him to advertise community gatherings, family events and tournaments at the bowling alley. He said he also offers free advertising and discounted options for nonprofit organizations and uses the sign to  notify passersby of emergencies such as a tsunami warning.

Kirk also pointed out that his sign is a “clean brand new sign.”

“If I drive up and down the street right now I see not-so-clean, not-so-well-managed bent signs, challenged signs, rusted signs, broken signs,” he said. “Economically and politically, it’s challenging to get signs approved.”

Kirk also pointed out that labor and maintenance costs for a bowling alley is high and meeting that challenge in Crescent City is constrained.

“Families have less flexibility for price increases than almost any other community in California,” he said. “So when our operating costs rise, the options are limited. Either we raise the prices making access harder for our families or we find some other sustainable revenue tools.”

On Feb. 17, Wier told City Councilors that the only other potential request the city has had for erecting a digital sign comes from Dr. James Standring, who operates a dental practice near Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard.

Though she ultimately approved the proposed ordinance, Mayor Pro Tem Candace Tinkler continued to argue that the proposed ordinance is contrary to “what has been successful in towns throughout the United States.”

Tinkler cited Arambula’s advice, noting that he’s the expert in urban planning Crescent City spent taxpayer money for the Downtown-Specific Masterplan he’s working on.

“I would like to consider that we don’t allow any offsite advertising at all,” she said. “I don’t see any purpose for that and I have a great concern that there are companies that will take advantage of that, particularly those that are probably not locally-owned businesses.”

Tinkler also addressed a provision in the ordinance governing sandwich board signs and their use as off-site signage. Wier noted that they are not currently allowed under the municipal code, but a few businesses have them.

Tinkler said she wanted to ensure that sandwich board signs aren’t allowed to be used for offsite advertising.

Signs will be part of the discussion as Crescent City heads into the second phase of its masterplan to revitalize the downtown area. According to Wier, public engagement is expected to start in April and will likely continue through the end of 2026. 

Those discussions will build off of previous engagement surrounding the expansion of Beachfront Park and the construction of the Front Street gateway monuments, Wier said.