Local governments juggle line between sign regulation; business needs

Elected officials are caught between two separate but equally powerful constituent groups. While residents – a.k.a. voters - clamor for less roadside billboard clutter, local businesses insist upon the necessity of adequate signage.

Meanwhile, the outdoor advertising industry continues to lobby on behalf of First Amendment freedom of speech rights and is backed up by a powerful union – the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Toss in the current economy, coupled with the ongoing reports of strife on the national news, and turmoil reaches into the most basic governmental bodies – municipalities.

In recent months city halls have begun revisiting signage ordinances in an attempt to clarify accepted uses to address recent technologies and still allow for enforcement of rogue signage, or signs that violate community standards.

Now the courthouse is taking up the task.

Director of the county’s Community Development Department, Wayne Anthony, said his staff is currently researching draft language to more clearly define what signs will be allowed while keeping the pressure on signage violations.

Anthony said the new digital billboards, capable of playing a short video clip, have prompted the need to upgrade signage codes.

“St. Charles (city), St. Peters, Wentzville and Lake Saint Louis have all addressed this,” Anthony said. “The problem is to keep yourself (the local government) out of trouble with the courts on freedom of speech issues.”

The current trend is to restrict the time in which an image can be shown before it changes. “That way you avoid that moving picture situation and more (driver) distraction,” Anthony said.

During a June 29 work session, County Council Chair Joe Brazil (Dist. 1) brought up yet another issue for Anthony’s staff to consider.

Small, home-based businesses in rural areas are currently restricted to a 2-square-foot sign affixed to the building in which the business operates.

“Some of these people have had their yard signs on their property and have paid property tax on them for 20 years or more,” Brazil said. “Now they’re getting citation letters.”

Anthony admitted the 2-square-foot limit in an agriculture zone is probably too restrictive as it wouldn’t allow the message to be seen from the road. He said his staff would review that matter with a more realistic eye.

As the municipalities are doing, the county is trying to develop the formula for signage codes that support healthy property values and a clean landscape on one side and commercial necessity on the other side of the equation.

Don Sowins, manager of St. Charles Sign and Electric company, specializing in erecting billboards, neon signage and sign illumination was present for the discussion and told MRN he was troubled by what he perceives to be a campaign to eliminate signage altogether.

“This started with Lady Bird Johnson,” Sowins said. “That was to clean-up signs on the side of roads and that probably should have been done. But now, it’s way, way out of hand.

“And now MoDOT is in the commercial sign business,” Sowins said. “The entire corridor between Illinois and Kansas is one big zone for signs.”

As an IBEW member, Sowins said that organization keeps close watch on legislation affecting outdoor signage.

But the detail council members exercised in quizzing Keith Hazelwood, who requested an appeal on behalf of DDI Media outdoor advertising company’s World Emporium billboard, indicates a concern for businesses’ viability.

The Board of Zoning and Adjustment had previously denied a request for a 20-foot height variance to a new billboard that is replacing one moved to accommodate the new Page Avenue extension at Central School Road intersection. The new location is lower, reducing the length of time the sign is visible from the new street elevation.

Carefully questioning Hazelwood’s detailed reasoning, bolstered by MoDOT’s Shelly Hines testimony that it would cost the state some $200,000 to buy out the billboard, tilted the vote toward approval.

However, it was County Executive Steve Ehlmann’s questioning that revealed a public safety aspect to the issue. Clarifying that it takes a minimum sight distance of 500 feet for a driver to see a sign, Ehlmann told the council it would probably be safer to approve an additional 20-foot height request so drivers wouldn’t be distracted so close to the intersection – which it did by unanimous vote in the regular session that followed.

Drafts of signage legislation to go before area city councils, boards of aldermen and the County Council are in various stages of compilation.

Lake Saint Louis is getting set for a second reading of its new sign legislation which, if passed as written, would completely exempt digital billboards.

Anthony said his department is leaning toward restricting the amount of time in which an image remains on the screen, which, he said, is what the city of St. Charles and Wentzville have already authorized.

Taking in the additional concerns for home businesses and new technology, the updated code language should be ready to present to the county Planning and Zoning Commission late this summer or by early fall, Anthony said. At that point there will be a public hearing on the matter before the commission’s vote to recommend it to County Council.

The council hears input from constituents prior to voting on amendments and bills, allowing for two public comment periods per measure.