Jim Tranum, whose inflatable eagle in front of Tranum Buick-Pontiac-GMC Truck dealership on South General Bruce Drive could become a casualty of the ordinance, said the city now has an ordinance that is too restrictive and is a hindrance to business.
“Absolutely I see this as a hindrance to business,” he said. “The leaders of our community need to understand what it takes to make a profit in business nowadays.
“I think if you just look at each of the prohibitive statements they have you have to question all of the political signs that are up, question whether we will be allowed to fly the American flag on Memorial Day,” he added.
He encouraged people with an interest to voice their concerns at the meetings.
“The most important thing for the people in this community, is when they see an ordinance that is restrictive to their lifestyle they need to come to the city meeting … and voice their opinion,” he said.
According to city officials, the recently approved ordinance is mostly a clarification of a poorly worded ordinance already in existence, but not all businesses are in favor of the changes. The ordinance prohibits some sign types and regulates others.
Jerry Bess, sales manager of Freedom Suzuki on General Bruce, said he hopes for clarification from the city, as well as an ordinance that does not hinder business.
“The only thing we hope is that it is conducive to business,” he said. “We’re going to the meeting for clarification.”
He hopes to learn how many signs are legal and an exact definition of a banner.
“We want to know exactly what they’re talking about so we can make sure we are in compliance,” he said.
Kim Foutz, assistant city manager, said the city, which approved the new ordinance several weeks ago after two readings, revised it because the original was not well written.
She said officials did not want to try to enforce many of the elements in it.
“The ordinance has been reorganized, the definitions have been improved and it’s been made customer friendly,” she said.
She added that the ordinance mainly addresses non-permanent signs.
“These are all of the miscellaneous type signage that you would typically think of as temporary signs like streamers or banners, inflatable devices, garage sale signs, cardboard signs, that type of thing,” she said. “It does not address the monument or pole type signs, or wall signs.”
She said the ordinance regulates things like streamers, inflatables, banners and similar devices through permitting. Those elements will be controlled as to how they can be erected and for how long.
Some signs, including handmade and portable signs, are prohibited in the ordinance, which Ms. Foutz said was addressed in the original ordinance.
“We’ve put it in a more clear and precise format so that we can enforce it now,” she said. “The ordinance was poorly written before and now we have cleaned it up.”
She said city staff members have distributed a brochure to businesses outlining the changes.
Ms. Foutz confirmed that Tranum’s inflatable eagle was prohibited under the original ordinance.
“We did find under the old ordinance that the eagle was classified as a portable sign,” she said. “And portable signs are prohibited.”
She said the new ordinance actually allows inflatables but regulates them to height and length of time they can be displayed.
She said that as part of the process of developing the ordinance, the city included input from the Temple Chamber of Commerce, Keep Temple Beautiful and Temple Economic Development Corporation as well as some business people. The city also looked at other cities’ ordinances.
