Sign Ordinances - Good Examples wanted.

[John Grenier]

Our little community is writing (with the help of a professional) new zoning laws. I have managed to get on the planning commission so I will have a real voice.

My question is for some examples of some other ordinances that can be recommended.

I've been in this business a long time and have had to deal with many different rules. Austin, TX - Los Angeles and surrounding areas - Small towns - mid size and giant places.

This Upper Peninsula Michigan township consists of two small towns that are supported by tourism and summer residents, each town has a blinker light and not one traffic light in the entire county. Very natural area and growth is slow but can change quickly and many of you probably have seen it happen.

I've come to realize that sign laws are important for a community but also that business must be able to advertise and people need to find stuff.

Thanks to all for any help.
John

[Roderick Treece]

John,
That sounds very exciting.
Being in the sign business for so long it is still a mystery to me why one city will have really great signs and another doesn't.I have been involved in projects where we designed all the signs for a plaza. When it was first opened all the graphics looked great but over time new tenents would go cheap and bring the look down.

Could there be some sort of design reveiw board the would have the final say.

How do you convince people to spend more to get a relly nice sign that helps keep the quality of the area up.

It might be possible to due a presentation showing one town with high quality signs and another with bad signage.

Good luck

Roderick

[Mike Jackson]

John,
When we moved to Jackson Hole 21 years ago, it had two or three stop lights. There are a few more now, and there would be a lot more but the town footprint doesn't have a lot of places to go since we are surrounded by national forests, parks, and wilderness areas. It probably has a few of the same features your area has. I am sure the town would supply you with a sign code, and I believe it is on line now.

When we moved here, the town had an OK sign code. Actually, it isn't that much different now, but a few of the gray areas were cleaned up.

I have a premise on sign codes:

A city can adopt THE absolute perfect sign code, but unless the sign companies making the signs want to sell and produce great signage, you still get average or lousy signs. Conversely, you can have a fairly lousy sign code in place, and if you have sign companies wanting to sell and produce great signage, you will eventually get a town full of great signs.

The city can regulate sizes, setbacks, numbers, and so forth, but what goes inside the sign sizes can't be effectively regulated. Our town still prohibits yellow or white backgrounds, but there is not a single person in the city offices now that can tell you why that was ever implimented. Several years ago, the current sign code staff made a push with the town council and mayor to change the sign code, asserting some of their design beliefs and standards. They have all moved on to new towns now, and not many people there know why those changes were made and by the looks of some of the signs going up, the current staff has not even read the code or the changes. I was in most of the steering committee meetings for the code changes. I am sure it helped, mainly because the people getting ready to draft the new code had no idea of the terminology or materials. It was an interesting process, but it certainly makes me know I am not cut out to be a politician or a city employee.

Good luck on the new code.

Mike Jackson

[Kent Smith]

ISA (International Sign Association) has great source books and example sign codes which we have found to be very useful and are accepted by planners because of their scholarly approach. They are also backed up with authentic research and statistics which can be favorable to a community and to the sign professional as well. The American Planners Assn. and the American Apraisers Assn. have also helped with this research so that helps with credability as well

Check the legislative section at www.signs.org

The nominal membership fee for small shops also will garner you direct assistance from the legislative affairs committee of ISA.