Here’s the real problem with the corporate color scheme Mi
Pueblo Food Center wants to display at its soon-to-be-opened First
Street location: the city standards are so vague that it invites
exactly what’s happening. Essentially, it’s mud wrestling over
”
standards
”
with the city staff serving as referee.
Here’s the real problem with the corporate color scheme Mi Pueblo Food Center wants to display at its soon-to-be-opened First Street location: the city standards are so vague that it invites exactly what’s happening. Essentially, it’s mud wrestling over “standards” with the city staff serving as referee.
When the zoning code says the building needs to be in “harmony with adjacent development” and portray a “favorable image of the city,” the opportunity for interpretation is broader than the spectrum of “acceptable” dresses one might find at the high school prom.
In fact, the word paint isn’t even mentioned in Zoning Ordinance 50.44.
Thus, the controversy begins. Is hot fuchsia harmonious with beige? Do the corporate colors that are currently all over Gilroy – and those colors, from Best Buy to Taco Bell, are not just evident but prevalent throughout town – portray a favorable image for the city?
Because there is no vision for Gilroy there are no clear regulations that define what’s acceptable. Lacking those, the struggle over standards becomes a subjective exercise. What’s good corporate business strategy (and it’s tough to argue that Mi Pueblo won’t get noticed) and what’s in good taste can be far different for Mi Pueblo than it is for Nob Hill. And when the city standards are so vague, there’s little hope of resolution without mud wrestling.
How to solve that “vision thing” and put it into regulations is what the Council should be overseeing. Meanwhile, Mi Pueblo’s colors have to stand.
