Rio del Mar psychic fails to foresee neighbors' complaints about signs

By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER
Sentinel staff writer

RIO DEL MAR — An unsuspecting psychic has neighbors complaining of tainted auras after she began displaying a banner, sandwich board and pink neon sign advertising her business in front of her two-story home in a normally quiet neighborhood.

The woman, who identified herself as Nancy Reganests, 36, hung the signs outside her home on Clubhouse Drive at Rio del Mar Boulevard after moving in this month. She runs her business on the bottom floor of the home; she and her family live on the top floor, she said.

She said she's simply trying to draw clients to her business of palm, psychic and past life readings. She insisted the signs are legal and would not take them down.

What Reganests didn't see in the cards were angry neighbors.

"It's the Rio del Mar Improvement Association's position that it has to go," said Mark Vanderwolde, the association's president, of the abundance of signs. "It can't be allowed to be such a focal point and prominent feature to the entrance to our community"

The signs include a banner strung across the garage lattice, a sandwich board displaying the name Aptos Psychic and phone number and a pink neon "open" sign in the bottom-floor window.

Under county rules, reading tarot cards and gazing into crystal balls are a legal home business, provided certain provisions are met, said planner Ken Hart with the county Planning Department.

However, it's the signs that may get Reganests in trouble.

When property is zoned residential, as it is at the Clubhouse Drive home, only a 1-foot square sign is allowed.

"It's clearly a violation," said Hart, who drove by the property this week after neighbors called county offices to complain. "We're hearing about it more and more. It should be pretty much a slam dunk"

As a "medium priority" violation, Hart said that the house would be "red-tagged" within the next few weeks for violating county code if the signs aren't removed.

Reganests said she moved Aptos Psychic to her home at Clubhouse Drive and Rio del Mar Boulevard from an office on Soquel Drive. However, the woman who did readings at the previous Aptos Psychic location was listed as Natalie Roberts. The person who answered the phone at the business declined to explain the discrepancy.

Meanwhile, neighbors said they're not trying to spread bad karma in their quest to have the signs removed.

"It's not a question of advertising, it's a question of how it's being done," resident Bill Comfort said.

"We don't wish any harm or ill will," Vanderwolde said. "We just want the illegal aspects of her business dealt with in a legal matter"