THOUSAND OAKS : Janss Mall Makes New Request for Sign

The first public hearing in Thousand Oaks’ brand-new City Hall on Tuesday might inspire a strong sense of deja vu .

Although the setting will be novel, the issue will be a retread: a developer’s request to build monument signs bearing Mervyn’s name outside the soon-to-be renovated Janss Mall.

The council turned down the Janss Corp.’s application in a 2-2 vote last spring, with Mayor Alex Fiore absent. Mervyn’s representatives will return to the council at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to try again, hoping Fiore’s tie-breaking vote will go their way.

Fiore has said he sympathizes with the department store’s need for visible signs and would support some attractive monuments identifying Mervyn’s as a major mall tenant.

But Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski, who opposed the original request last spring, said she was not convinced the signs would help draw shoppers to Mervyn’s. “If it can be demonstrated, after the project is complete, that large businesses in the mall are at a disadvantage, most certainly I could see that the city would want to assist them. But not right now,” Zukowski said.

At Tuesday’s public hearing, the Janss Corp. will request identification for both Mervyn’s and Toys R Us on four walls to be built at mall entrances. The developer also seeks bigger letters spelling out Toys R Us on the store’s exterior wall.