Signs Of The Times?
By Bob Steiner
The town of Edgewood, like all towns, has a lot of signs. There are traffic signs mandated by state and federal authorities which provide essential information to those traveling through our fair valley. Information signs alert us to the location of historical sites and other points of interest to visitors (please note here, for future reference, “visitors” - can also be defined as “tourists, who spend money!”). Large and small retailers have signs. Realtors have signs. There are even signs identifying various streets and roads in the town though, please don’t expect to find any on the South side of State Road #333, just West of the town’s administrative offices. Although the most recent election  is over and the votes have been tabulated, there still seems to be an abundance of the “stick in the ground” political cardboard signs around. There are even a few of these  “adorning” some of the more prominent barbed wire fences hereabout.  What seems pariticularly hard to understand is that some merchants have had to resort to “stick” cardboard signs to identify their locations. While milk carton signs announcing week end garage sales are posted,  they, at least, do seem to be removed in a timely manner.
By now, I think I’ve made my point. Our town has a lot of signs. Unfortunately, there seems to be no pattern or rules as to how they should be displayed. To put it simply, as evidenced by the many different styles of signage displayed, it would appear that Edgewood does not enforce (or does not have) a sign ordinance. The truth is the town has a sign ordinance. In fact, thanks to many hours of work by concerned citizens, such as Ray Seagers, Harland Lawson, and others,  there have been two major ordinance draft revisions completed in the last three years. While these dedicated citizens were commended in front of the council for their diligent efforts, their work  was either rejected or held in abeyance by the Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as the town council. As far as this writer could determine, no actual council vote was ever taken on either draft. At the present time there is a moritorium on sign code enforcement and this is to remain in effect until the “new ordinance” is passed. Queries to council staff indicate that the town is trying to work on bringing the new ordinance to its final form very soon. I do hope we can now look forward to a rapid acceptance of this new “directive” by all parties concerned.
In view of the many past delays in revising and re-writing the ordinance, please pardon me if I sound somewhat skeptical. Sometimes, decisions do come hard for elected or appointed representatives, having to risk the potential wrath of town residents. I can almost hear it now:”The sign is too big”, “I don’t like the color of my neighbor’s sign”, “That sign is blocking my view”! These are just some of the complaints our valiant representatives might have to face. Also,  there are some pro-growth individuals who favor large signs for businesses, while some anti-growth citizens might favor the smallest signs possible. As previously indicated, making the right decision may be a difficult task. Still a decision must be made. Please note that even  among the most recalcitrant parties  compromise is sometimes necessary!
Yes , there still might be problems and total agreement on all aspects  might not be possible.  I would just hope that our representatives are ever-cognizant that their failure to come up with a timely solution to the task they were assigned is not only causing frustration among our citizens, but has had a negative impact on our busines community. Whatever solution our representatives decide to use, let’s get it done!  Christmas is soon upon us. Merchants need gudiance for their seasonal sale banners. The “Route 66 Association” is also considering some expenditures for signage promoting that historic highway. All of the above will be impacted by the action (or inaction ) of our appointed and elected representatives.  We have had enough procrastination!
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3 Responses “Signs Of The Times?”
Simply No Significant Sign Incentive That Is Not Sinister … Simple as that!
The sign ordinance situation has been fraught with difficulty for years. In my opinion, the Town should go back to the beginning and scrap the original ordinance, much of which was copied from other municipalities’ ordinances. Sign regulation should be context-sensitive, as outlined in the American Planning Association’s sign research publication.
Of paramount importance is the idea that signs should be context-sensitive, which means that a context must be developed. In essence, the question “What do we want this place to look like when it’s finished?” must be asked and answered. Both the Town government and other interested parties have seemed resistant to resolving this issue. Apparently, the principal objections are that this would require substantial time and effort and also place some restrictions upon those developing commercial properties, specifically with respect to architectural design and sign configuration. (The fact is that such restrictions can actually benefit business, with Santa Barbara, California being among the prime examples.)
The Town has done one thing that is in the APA guidelines, and that is the appointment of a sign ordinance committee. However, an early position of the Town, later recognized by Town officials as incorrect (I have this much in writing) was that the Committee was no longer in effect because the new mayor and Council had not appointed them. In speaking with members of the sign ordinance committee, much of the problem appears to be that the Town staff essentially have veto power over what the committee produces – complaints include claims that the Town staff is simply taking the committee’s recommendations and replacing them with its own. I haven’t verified this independently, but the complaints certainly come from more than one source. All things considered, it appears that the Town government is either disinterested in public input on this issue or not taking it seriously.
I was pleasantly surprised by the interest my original
“Signs” article seems to have generated. In addition to the written comments and the other article on our Blog which our editor, John Weckerle, wrote, I have received many favorable verbal comments from within the community. Once again I wish to emphasize that I have no real personal preference, when it come to signs. My goal in doing the article was simply to “nudge”our town leaders to finally get the job done!