Big Brother Tops the Sign Industry (for Now)

Through Google Alerts, I usually receive ample, sign-code-related news. However, most recent reports that have found my inbox trend negatively for the sign industry. Here’s a roundup of some of the recent news items:
• Marlborough, MA city officials have placed a 10-month-long ban on electronic digital displays – which Councilor Joseph Delano referred to as a danger because of their illumination – according to the Marlborough www.patch.com page. The council enacted the ban to allow time for it to create a committee of council members and representatives to develop regulations for the signs
• Cape Coral, FL’s city council is voting on a ban of A-frame signs on its sidewalks. The website for the Ft. Myers/Naples Fox affiliate profiled a business owner who will be harmed by the proposal: Patricia Campo, who operates a dog-boarding business, Best Pets Doggie Daycare, on rental property located behind her landlord’s business, depends on such signs to announce her shop’s existence. She said a permanent freestanding sign is beyond her budget. Marty McClain, a councilman and the vice chairman of Cape Coral’s planning and zoning commission, said it’s too bad for such business owners, but said “They aren’t paying as much [rent] as those on major roads.”
• In Dothan, AL, city officials have approved a new sign code that forbids electronic signage to use animated videos or scrolling text – plus, their illumination isn’t allowed to exceed ambient light by more than 0.3 footcandles. Also, banners are only allowed to be installed for 15 days consecutively; the new ordinance allows up to eight, 15-day periods, but forbids them from being back-to-back.
• In Albany, NH, shopkeeper Carole Cotton sought to inspire her fellow townspeople by putting a blackboard next to the entrance with a heading “Before I Die, I Want To…” with chalk to allows passersby to express their wishes. Over approximately one month, hundreds had conveyed their wishes, but Cotton was served with legal papers from the Carroll Co. Sheriff’s Department, which notified her that blackboard constituted a sign, and that its presence exceeded the city’s permitted sign area of 32 sq. ft. Faced with a potential fine of $275 a day, Cotton acquiesced and removed the board. Her “Before I Die” board had been inspired by Candy Chang, a New Orleans artist who had painted the same message on an abandoned Crescent City building and left

We appreciate that city planners and administrators have a challenging task. Unemployment numbers are still high, and most cities’ budgets are overstretched. It’s no easy task to formulate a successful growth strategy.
But, why, time and again, are a community’s businesses – and, in particular, smaller, independent ones, which lack the resources to go through an arduous variance process – and the sign industry forced to bear the brunt? In many of these articles, I read a common refrain: they want to eliminate, shrink or curtail signage because of what they call “clutter” and “protecting aesthetics.” Well, our nation’s Main Streets will be, ahem, uncluttered when residents and visitors stop spending money in your downtowns, leaving behind shuttered establishments and a withered economy because of restricted commercial speech. Precisely how aesthetically pleasing will such a sight be?