In his second attempt to get the Simi Valley Planning Commission on his side, three-time Major League Baseball All-Star Lenny Dykstra finally got approval to expand the size of the sign in front of his Simi Valley car wash.

At an Aug. 9 meeting, after much discussion and a 2-1 vote, commissioners approved a plan that will convert the current sign and structure into about 51 square feet of signage.

Ray Ross, general manager of Lenny Dykstra's Car Wash at 1144 Los Angeles Ave., said he's happy the commissioners approved what he called his final attempt to calm their concerns.

"I'm elated," Ross said. "It's been a long struggle with a lot of design stages. Our goal was to create aesthetic signage. This was our eighth or ninth design in an effort to accommodate all the elements the commissioners brought up.

"I'm happy for Mr. Dykstra and the whole company," Ross added. "It's taken a lot of patience and fortitude."

As it stands, the structure is 14 feet tall with a 30-square-foot sign, including a 100-square-foot opening in the middle. In April, Ross asked for approval to fill the opening, which would result in a 58-square-foot face on each side.

At the April 5 meeting, the commissioners struck down the plans, continuing the item to allow Ross and city planners time to design a sign with more open area.

"They looked at the plans and said, 'This is going to be huge. We don't want a 14-foot wall up there,'" said Brian Chong, an associate planner in the city's environmental services department. "So the applicant went back to the drawing board and drew up a new sign."

The final design features channel letters mounted to a stucco wall painted white to match the existing structure. To satisfy the commissioners, openings around the sides of the sign were set at 2 feet along each side and 6 inches along the top.

But Commissioner Michael McGuigan wanted more.

"The sign isn't in proportion to the opening," McGuigan said. "I'd support it if it went 2 feet all around."

Chairperson Jim Dantona, Jr. defended the plans.

While studying a photo of the proposed sign, he expressed concern about adding many more inches to the opening. "It's difficult to see how you'd do that without crushing (the design)."

However, nobody bailed Ross out when it was made public that the photos of the existing structure were not a correct representation of what stood at the car wash. More than half of the opening had been filled with illegal signage, for which Ross had never been cited.

Ross told Chong after the meeting that he would remove the illegal signage Thursday.

Questions also arose to as whether baseball-themed logo signs on another part of the structure were calculated as part of the signage area. If they were factored in, the area would exceed the limit of 60 square feet.

"We are asking the commission to consider taking the logos there and take them out of the signage

area," said Peter Lyons, deputy director and city planner. "By all means, though, if you add those in, it well exceeds."

Because the logo signs weren't brought up at the last continuance, the commissioners decided to consider them buildingidentification signs, excluding them from the count.

An appeal may be filed during the next 14 days. Ross said he plans to wait out the appeal period and then begin work on the new sign.

Lenny Dykstra's Car Wash in Simi is Dykstra's largest wash. The $9.5-million facility opened in 1998 and is home to an auto repair shop, a pizza parlor and a waterfall.