Architectural commission approves Giuseppe's restaurant signs months after prior removal

A city commission voted Tuesday to allow the restaurant sign on the left to return to a spot near Marriott’s Shadow Ridge off Monterey Avenue. Another one will be installed in another nearby location. A sign at one of the locations (seen at left) had previously been removed.

The Palm Desert Architectural Review Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday to approve two monument signs for Giuseppe’s Restaurant and Pizzeria on Monterey Avenue, months after the signs were installed without a permit and despite discrepancies between the approved design and what was actually built. Commissioner George Garcia cast the dissenting vote.

The project sought approval of two non-illuminated, double-sided monument signs on existing sign bases off Monterey Avenue for Giuseppe’s, at 9002 Shadow Ridge Road. Development Services staff said the signs met the city’s sign ordinance requirements, including a 68-inch height limit, and recommended approval.

Giuseppe’s owner Joe Funkey said the sign had been installed for about five months before the city ordered it removed following a complaint., noting that Marriott Shadow Ridge, which owns the property, took the sign down after being told a permit had not been filed. He said Canyon Print and Signs, the applicant, had told him a permit was not required because the sign was not illuminated.

Commissioners also noted that the design drawings presented to them did not match the sign as built. That version was eventually found in an online map image and shown to the commissioners. It shows the Giuseppe’s logo on the installed sign extending across the full width of the sign box, rather than leaving blank space on one side as shown in the submitted materials.

Funkey told the commission the restaurant had reused an existing monument sign structure that previously advertised the Marriott Shadow Ridge property, removing styrofoam elements from the old sign and replacing them with a new face. The restaurant’s general manager said Marriott Shadow Ridge had given the restaurant permission under its lease to use the monument, which had stood vacant for about five years after a previous restaurant, the Grill, closed in March 2020.

Before the vote, Garcia said he wanted the correct, as-built version of the sign included in the meeting packet, and he raised concerns about the original complaint that led to the sign’s removal.

Staff said that with the commission’s approval, the sign would be considered consistent with that approval and could be installed at both locations.