Green will be the color of all signs at a West Caldwell, NJ, shopping center named West Caldwell Plaza. Not that green was the choice of owners of that shopping center. They wanted a little color variety, and they therefore challenged a local regulation that specifies the color of shopping center signs in West Caldwell.
Under that regulation, each of the local shopping centers must have signage that is uniform in color. The local planning board had recommended such standards following a recommendation by its specially designated sign committee.
The owners of West Caldwell Plaza nevertheless sued, seeking to invalidate the signage provisions of local law as being “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.” And they asked the opinion of a professional planner and licensed architect, who said the color requirements violate state law in requiring different colors for commercial signs in the different shopping centers. In response, local government called on the expert opinion of its own professional planner, and he stated that a municipality can create reasonable deviations from uniform requirements of law. In other words, he said, local government has flexibility in applying its own standards.