The group asked Assistant City Manager Kim Foutz to look at an extension of the start of enforcement and give a second look at streamer and balloon regulations, as well as the time limit for outdated signs.
During a question and answer period about the ordinance, which deals with temporary commercial signs, Ms. Foutz told the group the city made changes because the ordinance was poorly written and therefore officials have been hesitant to enforce it.
“It was just very, very hard to interpret,” she said. “And as a result of that there were many, many provisions in our sign ordinance that we chose not to enforce.”
She said it was reorganized to make it easier to read and understand.
Although officials said the ordinance was not meant to single out any particular business type, one of the changes restricts the use of streamers often used by car dealers.
The new section allows streamers to be displayed three days per permit with three permits per year allowed.
Jerry Bess, sales manager of Freedom Suzuki on General Bruce, said attention-getting devices such as streamers are important to car dealers.
“What I’m trying to do is get people to look over to the side of the road,” he said of the streamers. “It seems to me … this is pointed right at car dealerships. It seems to me that somebody was upset at car dealers and wants to take that ability to advertise away.”
Other dealers said a car lot without streamers looks like a parking lot, and that streamers are to car lots what a barber pole is to barber shops.
“Our intent was not to overly affect one industry,” Ms. Foutz said.
“That was not the case at all,” she said, adding that the ordinance actually allows more than the original one did.
“Before, it was prohibited altogether,” she said of streamers. “The problem is you all didn’t know it was prohibited because we weren’t out there actively enforcing it because it was just not clear enough.”
She said the streamers are basically an attention-getting device, rather than a sign that conveys a message.
A number of car dealers said they recently bought streamers and asked for an extension to let them wear out naturally, so they can get their money’s worth.
Ms. Foutz said she would have to get clarification on whether balloons are allowed on new cars, since they are technically considered inflatables, which, like the inflatable eagle in front of Tranum Buick-Pontiac-GMC Truck dealership on South General Bruce Drive, are restricted in the ordinance update. The original document prohibited inflatables.
The ordinance was set to go into enforcement 45 days after the educational meetings.
Harry Adams of Johnson Brothers Ford questioned the limitations of banners at a business.
One of the automobile dealers consulted during the process, he said car dealerships are unique in their use of signs.
“For example,” he said, “Not many businesses have five different businesses within one business (referring to new cars, used cars, parts, service and body shop). We tried to make that point and I don’t really feel like you all heard what we were saying.”
Ms. Foutz said the original document allowed only one banner sign, but the new one allows one per building on a complex such as dealerships.
Rodney Deyoe, president of The Charter Group, said he was opposed to the time limit required to change sign faces when a company closes its business. The ordinance allows 30 days before an out-of-date sign must be changed.
“I’m not sure how much thought we put into that,” he said.
He said retail centers and office buildings may have a sign up for five years and the business leaves, and it might take six months to lease that space to another tenant.
He added that it can cost upwards of $6,000 to blank a sign face, only to have to fill in the blank again when a new tenant arrives.
Barbara Morgenroth, construction safety and code enforcement official with the city, said in addition to keeping the city better looking by keeping track of out-of-date signs, it is also interested in eliminating confusion from signs left up too long.
“The success of this is not to send out a bunch of code enforcement officers running around in the city,” Ms. Foutz said. “The success is if there is a buy-in by the businesses that we can improve our community and still get their commercial message out and that’s really what our goal is.”
