Our city council is discussing banning sandwich board signs in town. I wonder, how will I do an open house without them? I was taking a walk downtown yesterday morning before the stores were open and I took a look at the sandwich board signs and was a bit surprised.
There were more, but you get the idea. They are spread out on various corners, and all are wonderful locally owned business who have to attract the foot traffic from the ferries, but when you really start thinking about how many there are, it begins to look a bit tacky.
Most of our store owners are really hurting, and we have a Downtown organization that is very active in promoting the area. We even have a small cruise ship that stops one week-end a month in the summer. It is full of very interesting and innovative shops, great restaurants and good entertainment. It is totally dependent on visitors to survive. We are beginning to see more and more vacancies, but also there are still new businesses popping up. More on that later.
We have at least 5 large commericial/mixed used buildings for sale on our main street. Grand old buildings dating back to the late 1800's, with water views, 3 and 4 floors with retail and residential suites.
It seems the ordinance will go into effect in the fall. What's going on in your town?
Business is the lifeblood of any community and I always question why local governments often try to make it harder to do business in the name of "bettering" the community. There must be a good balance for everyone to grow and prosper. Why would any new business locate in a community that limits their opportunities to grow? We have the same issue in some of our local townships.
That happened to one agent who had to do an open house in a town that banned A-boards on sidewalks.
Here's what she did: she found a good place to park her car at a starting point. There was no rule that said she couldn't place it on the car so, she placed the board on the car. At each turn, she tied balloons at the street sign posts. Ingenuous and creative I thought.
Certain jurisdictions in our MLS do not allow signs on corners and public property. The have an exception though for open houses. They can be displayed the morning of the open hose and must come down right after the open house.
Thanks for reading my post. Good to hear from all of you.
This would be a ban on the sandwich board signs any where in the city, and since our mayor is a realtor with her own company it will be intersting to see if they are exempted.
Terry - why are they trying to ban them, eyesore, safety hazard, injuries? There are probably better solutions than a total ban. But government, at all levels, seems to only be able to work in the extremes.
I am not sure of the reason,my guess is our city council is anit-business; and I can't take the hypocrisy and hostility at the city council meetings, so I remain ignorant. The first step taken will be to enforce the existing sign laws, requireing permits to be obtained, and signs to be of proper dimensions and shape. In the downtown area the number of signs will be limited. So who's sign will be left out?
The city plans to confiscate signs not in compliance.
A friend of mine who owns a very large B & B in a unique mansion used to give tours and hired a young lady 4 hours a day as a guide. Since she had to remove her sign, she no longer gives the tours and the girl is out of a job.
Here are some of the biggest offenders at our Boat Haven off the main street.
Sandra, of course if people don't see the sandwich signs, then they will be sublminally directed toward the big box stores, or the chain restaurants, or the big discount stores, and the little vendor will be by-passed. Sounds like corporate America has gotten in bed with your city council.
No, not at all. We do not have box stores in Port Townsend. Not allowed. No formula stores...nothing that could give us a nice tax base. Go figure! That is one of the reasons our town is so charming, but there are areas outside of town they could go. However our population is so small, it would not be worth it for them to come here.
There are some neighboring towns where we need a permit to put up a sign. Must apply for them 7 days in advance and they can't stay up over night.
Sandra - Maybe you should forward this to your city officials. You've hit the nail on the head.
We are a twin cities and one of the cities has what is becoming a very restrictive council . We are very limited on type of signs.
Our city is having an extreme make-over. They are turning back the clock and we now have major restrictions on signage and exterior remodels. It will look Nice in the end but makes it harder to promote.
Nice post
Scott
Sandra, Make sure that real estate signs have exemptions. Laws and ordinances are written with a brought stroke. This can really be an enforcement problem and your business could be affected...
Linsey,
I am afraid of them, think they might hurt me! Mostly kidding, but our mayor owns her own RE compnay and has a sandwich board out in from every day, so I sure there will be some exemptions. Will be interesting to see how she handles this.
We have local c-me-sell and other cut rate agencies who ignore all the sign ordinaces and no one ever does anything.
Paul,
Thanks for the advice, I am sure our local MLS will be on top of this.