LAMORINDA WEEKLY | New Signs Point Moragans in the Right Directions


The design draft for new gateway signs. Image provided

Pear or no pear? Blue or green sky? Many hours of public debate have been consumed by these difficult questions. Creating wayfinding signs may seem trivial to some, but as Planning Director Ellen Clark says, it supports the image a community has and wants to communicate of itself.

The signs finally chosen by the Moraga Town Council are simple and will consistently be installed townwide for cars, bicycles and pedestrians. A whole new map will be created for these three categories of users. The council also chose a new gateway sign style for the entrances to town.

As part of the pedestrian and bicycle master plan, staff had found that signage in Moraga lacked consistency. "Key destinations have been identified, and different types of signs have been chosen by the design review board, as well as through an online poll," Clark said at a July council meeting.

The initial design alternatives included one with a pear at the top left of the signs, a reference to the glorious past of Moraga when it was the Bartlett pear capital of the world. The online poll results said no pear, but staff recommended the inclusion of the historic symbol because the DRB preferred it that way.

Mayor Mike Metcalf said he did not want to start World War III over the pear-or-no-pear debate. Council member Phil Arth said he didn't want it as it would clutter the sign; council member Teresa Onoda said she would rather follow the poll's result; and vice mayor Dave Trotter dealt the final blow to the pear when he said that it looked like a partridge or a quail.

Once the simple design was approved, the council focused its attention to the four proposals for new gateway signs. This project was started when the Moraga Movers (residents over 55) offered the town $10,000 to build new gateway signs at the town limits along Moraga Way, Moraga Road, St. Mary's Road and Canyon Road. The group had become frustrated with the dilapidated air of the hand-carved wood billboards that welcome people in town.

Associate planner Coleman Frick showed four styles of signs to the council, and explained that individual costs were in the range of $10,000 to $17,000 each. The council members had a preference for the least expensive sign with its hill silhouette that resembles the newly adopted wayfinding signs, but they indicated that they did not have the budget at this time and that the project would be reevaluated at the budget's mid-year revision in January.