Laguna Beach planning commission approves sign permit for Oto Sushi at 370 Glenery Street

The City of Laguna Beach Planning Commission on Feb. 19, 2025, unanimously approved a sign permit for Oto Sushi, a full-service restaurant at 370 Glenery Street, allowing one primary wall sign and one logo wall sign with halo illumination.

Staff planner Sarah Olsen told the commission the building is in the downtown commercial district within the downtown specific plan area and is an approximately 5,500-square-foot commercial building currently occupied by Oto Sushi. Olsen said the application proposes a wall sign above the Mermaid Street entrance and a logo sign above the Glenery Street entrance and that staff finds the proposed signs meet the objective design standards and recommends adopting a resolution approving the permit and finding the action exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). "Overall, staff finds that the proposed signs meet the design criteria and the objective design standards for wall signs and recommends that the planning commission adopt the attached resolution approving the sign permit application and finding said action exempt from CEQA," Olsen said.

Under the proposal, the primary wall sign would use gold-painted aluminum reverse-channel letters with letter heights up to 21 inches, span about 64 inches and total 9.3 square feet. The letters would be equipped with four 4,000-Kelvin LED fixtures that illuminate by halo lighting against the building face. The logo sign would be a fish-shaped gold-painted aluminum reverse-channel element with an "o" cutout and the word "sushi." The fish element is approximately 50 inches high by 24 inches wide; the word "sushi" is about 6 inches high by 31 inches long. The logo sign and the word together measure about 13.5 square feet and would also be halo-illuminated by four 4,000-Kelvin LEDs.

Don Torres Barzil, representing America's Instant Sign (the contractor for the work), told the commission the materials and finish are appropriate for the coastal environment and that the installer has not experienced durability problems with painted aluminum in similar settings. "We work closely with Sarah to make sure that everything is up to the codes that the city requires, the material, the illumination, everything," Torres Barzil said.

Commissioners asked whether the proposed letter heights exceeded the administrative thresholds; staff confirmed that the letter height exceeds 8 inches, which is why the application required review by the planning commission. Commissioners also discussed prior local sign decisions, noting that in a recent Farmers & Merchants Bank (F&M) case the commission reduced a lighting specification from 7,000 Kelvin to 4,000 Kelvin and limited backlighting on a smaller logo. Commissioner Goldman said the proposed lighting "is consistent with where we wound up a couple of weeks ago." Commissioner Kellenberg called the sign "tasteful" and said the larger letter size was reasonable for a three-letter business name. Chair Sadler and other commissioners voiced support as well.

The commission adopted the recommended resolution approving Sign Permit 25-0231 and finding the action exempt from CEQA by unanimous roll-call vote, 4-0, with Commissioner Whitenett absent. Commissioners who voted "yes" were Commissioner Goldman, Commissioner Dubin, Chair Pro Tem Kellenberg and Chair Sadler.

The commission had no additional items requiring action at the meeting and noted a special meeting on the promenade project scheduled for Feb. 26, 2025.