For a small business, the numbers can add up quickly, as Richard Gardner, owner of ComedyWorx in Raleigh, North Carolina, points out. “If [our club] loses one sale per show, that’s an $8,000 annual loss,” Gardner told a local newspaper.
And for many small restaurants and retail outlets, it can mean the difference between an open sign and another that tells customers the business is no longer operating.
The losses that Gardner predicted came from an issue over window signs—specifically just how much space a company could use of its window to denote what is inside. The city had proposed limiting that to 30 percent of the window’s area.
As businesses banded together with sign companies, James Carpentier, International Sign Association (ISA) manager of State and Local Government Affairs, was brought in to help showcase how important signs are to small businesses and how restrictive—and potentially damaging—that 30 percent limit would be.
The Raleigh task force raised the limit to 50 percent. It also conceded that its limit of three colors (plus black and white) was too restrictive and raised that to seven colors plus black and white. Businesses in the community continue to push for more.
The key to success in most of these circumstances involves business owners and sign companies working together to share the story of the importance of signage. As they build a bridge to the community leaders, they often have two important resources to assist: the ISA and research developed by ISA and the Signage Foundation, Inc.
While the specifics may be different in communities around the country, as ISA keeps its finger on the pulse of sign code issues, some clear trends emerge:
Temporary signage. It is all too common that communities want to regulate the number of temporary signs or how often they can be displayed. Until now, this has largely been guesswork—a delicate balancing act between community aesthetics and business success.
That changed in the fall when prominent planner Wendy Moeller released new guidelines at the National Signage Research and Education Conference hosted by the Signage Foundation, Inc., to help communities regulate temporary signage.
The guidelines (available at www.signs.org/temporarysigns) include best practices for overall codes as well as those that might apply to individual sign types.
Moeller’s guidelines acknowledge the complexity of temporary signs, especially given that they are constantly changing. How many are reasonable? How long can they stay up to be considered temporary? That is an issue communities continually grapple with.
In places like Rio Rancho, New Mexico, restrictions were recently loosened, while Flagstaff, Arizona is re-evaluating these types of signs with an eye toward removing limitations on the number of signs and the length that they may be up.
Comments like this one—from Roscoe, Wisconsin’s zoning and planning administrator quoted in the local newspaper—are no longer rare: “What we need to do is look at our sign ordinance and make more changes to the sign ordinance so that it is more business friendly.”
Imagine if more communities took this approach. Unfortunately this is not always the case.
Chesapeake, Virginia recently began stepping up enforcement of temporary signs. Truro Town, Massachusetts is exploring limits on the number of temporary signs. Still others want to charge permit fees or limit the type of materials that can be used in these signs.
Despite the name, there is likely nothing “temporary” about these types of sign code battles. However Moeller’s guidelines provide an important tool to help businesses and communities walk that fine line between too little and too much regulation.
Increased complexity of sign codes. Kenny Peskin, ISA manager of state and local government affairs, noted that New Bedford, Massachusetts recently replaced an outdated eight-page sign code with regulations that exceed fifty-five pages.
The New Bedford situation shows how important it is to monitor local sign codes since the community adopted its codes based largely on those in place in Flagstaff, Arizona. (Ironically it is the same sign code that Flagstaff has considered easing.)
It also points to how important it is for local sign companies to work with their regional Affiliated Association and ISA on these issues. Since the same issues occur around the country, ISA has likely already encountered the situation and has resources and strategies at the ready.
Need help? If your community is facing a sign code issue, ISA’s Sign Code Success team can help by pointing you to resources, rallying local sign businesses, and—if warranted—visiting to testify. Contact Kenny Peskin at [email protected] or James Carpentier at [email protected].
David Hickey is vice president, Government Affairs, at ISA. He can be reached via email at [email protected].
