El Cerrito city staff will meet with the local business community to clarify the city's regulations on commercial signs.

Chamber of Commerce officials are asking community development director Mitch Oshinsky to come talk to them after merchants have voiced complaints from inconsistent enforcement actions to signs hidden by overgrown street trees.

In the chamber's September newsletter, manager Mark Scott wrote "A number of you have complained to me about the massing, canopy density, and spacing of street trees. Many point out that complaints to the city have not brought resolution and business suffers accordingly. Recently there has been an upturn in complaints about sandwich signage and so-called temporary signage particularly related to uneven enforcement of the sign ordinance."

Public Works director Jerry Bradshaw said Wednesday, "I don't recall getting specific complaints about specific trees," but conceded "businesses are always concerned about trees. We're cognizant of that."

He said he would check with maintenance crews to determine if and when specific complaints had been received.

The architect working on the city's ongoing tree planting program is going through the placement of trees, Bradshaw said.

"We try as best we can to not block signs," he said.

Oshinsky acknowledged Tuesday he is working with chamber first vice-president John Stashik to set a date to speak to the group.

Oshinsky's department

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has suggested projection signs, which stand perpendicular to the street, at the Village at Town Center on San Pablo Ave.

"Most merchants don't know there are sign regulations," he asserted. "We want to have them know the regulations and comply so we don't have to enforce them."

The city has one code enforcement officer, Jaime Jakubczak, looking for noncompliant signs plus building and zoning code violations, Oshinsky explained.

Besides patrolling the city, he works on a complaint basis, added planning manager Jennifer Carman, who wrote the latest update of the signage codes in March 2008.

"But we don't get that many complaints," she said.

He welcomes calls to himself at 510-215-4308, Carman at 510-215-4330 or Jakubczak 510-215-43 directly. Those who think public trees block their signs can call public works, Oshinsky said.

"We rewrote the code to be more flexible, in response to requests of the business community," Carman said of last year's code update.

For example, A-frame signs weren't legal on sidewalks but now are, as long as they don't impede pedestrians.

No signs are allowed on thoroughfare medians such as San Pablo Avenue. The city considers them such dangerous driving distractions that enforcement officers remove them on sight.

Another illegal sign is one that entails distracting movement — spinning in the wind, oscillating or flopping wildly, such as tall inflatables.