A rendering of how San Pedro’s new gateway sign will look at night. (Rendering courtesy Gus Navarro, Jr., San Pedro Electric Sign Company)
After planning and navigating the Los Angeles city bureaucracy for longer than they’d hoped, supporters marked a milestone recently in getting a key permit for a lighted gateway sign to be installed on Sixth Street near Harbor Boulevard in San Pedro.
The Los Angeles Board of Public Works approved the sign earlier this month.
“We overcame the two largest hurdles, which was approval from the Department of Cultural Affairs as well as the Bureau of Engineering,” said Ryan Blaney, executive director of the San Pedro Property Owners’ Alliance, which is sponsoring the project.
The next steps call for a “couple minor permits” to get through, he said. The overall cost came to about $200,000.
While no firm installation schedule has been put in place yet, the sign is anticipated to go up sometime in the first quarter of 2025, Blaney said.
“The shell has been constructed offsite and work continues to have it ready for install,” he said.
The idea of an arched, lighted sign spanning a key San Pedro intersection street had been languishing for years with little success.
The project was complicated: The location alone required extensive research and consultation with Los Angeles city officials. And then there was the choice of a design.
After informal consultations with the city to help identify a site that did not conflict with utility infrastructure, the PBID plan got a needed reboot in 2022 when a request for designs finally went out for ideas.
Three selected design options were unveiled for public review the following year.
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While earlier plans called for a fully arched sign spanning the street and anchored on both sides, complications with an existing Los Angeles Department of Water and Power vault in the area forced those plans to change to what now will be a cantilevered design. The sign will be anchored on one side only and will stretch over Sixth Street, near Palos Verdes Street and just west of the Harbor Boulevard corner.
Executing the work will be the San Pedro Electric Sign Co.
The gateway sign — similar to the classic lighted signs seen in other cities — will let visitors know there are restaurants, shops and other attractions across from the waterfront.
The sign will coincide with the rollout of West Harbor, the new waterfront development expected to see a grand opening in 2025.