Signs says you’re in La Crescenta

It’s a bit easier to tell when you enter La Crescenta now thanks to a sign recently installed at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Briggs Avenue. The sign — which welcomes folks to La Crescenta and displays the name of the county pocket, or spot, park where it’s located — is one of four signs that eventually will mark out the borders of the town.

Grace Andrus, president of the Crescenta Valley Town Council said she was pleased to see the Pickens Canyon Park, Welcome to La Crescenta sign displayed last week.

“The sign looks beautiful, and I’m so excited to see Pickens Canyon Park almost at completion,” Andrus said.

The Town Council has been working with Los Angeles County and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for about four years to place signs at three of the four locations: Pickens Canyon Park; at the La Crescenta off ramp of the Foothill (210) Freeway; and at Pennsylvania Avenue by the 210. The fourth sign will be placed in front of Ellis Realty on Foothill Boulevard, in cooperation with the real estate business.

The first sign to be completed is the Pickens Canyon Park sign, which caught the eye of several passersby last week. Although currently somewhat shielded from the sidewalk by temporary cyclone fencing, the sign compels pedestrians and drivers to take note of the otherwise unnoticed change of jurisdiction.

The sign currently has no wording on the backside; however, that’s expected to change soon, Andrus said.

“Now if you walk down Briggs you can’t really tell anything from the sign, but it will have a back side, kind of like double-sided, that says Pickens Canyon Park, so people will know that’s where they are,” she added.

The sign was paid for by the county, which budgets money for signage at all its parks, Andrus said.

Although the other three signs aren’t yet up, the Town Council and Chamber of Commerce have worked with Caltrans to clean up an area at the La Crescenta 210 off ramp. A crew of locals from the chamber and council works together on vegetation and regularly picks up garbage at that site. Another “Welcome to La Crescenta” sign will soon grace that location as well, Andrus said.

“It was quite wonderful to see the sign go up last week,” said Crescenta Valley resident artist and production designer Richard Toyon, who designed the sign.

The idea for a “Welcome to La Crescenta” sign has been in the works for the Foothill Design Committee for about four years, Toyon said. The committee took it to the Town Council, who liked the idea a lot, he added.

Originally, the spot park and sign was to have been created with volunteer labor; however, when the county later became involved in the project, it added more red tape, but also alleviated the need for volunteer labor, he said.

Toyon’s sign design went through a number of renditions in the past four years, but it always included some basic ideas, which are incorporated in the finished product.

“There was no question that it had to have a La Crescenta stone base, and the rest had to be a relatively organic look,” said Toyon.

Design for the remaining three signs will be coordinated with the Pickens Park welcome sign. “So you’ll always know, when you look at the sign, that you’re in La Crescenta,” Toyon said.