09/14/2011 P&Z Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Planning & Zoning Board September 14, 2011 Page 6 APPROVED MINUTES have stated that they consider the city’s signage requirements t oo restrictive to make their business successful. Council has discussed the issue and requested that the planning and zoning board provide comment. The board was asked whether they considered the city’s exis t ing s ignage requirements to be too restrictive . Chair Tralle pointed out that when the city revised its requirements not that long ago, very few business owners in the city showed up to make comments. He added that a lot of effort went into revising the ordinance several years ago with little feedback from the public. Therefore he considered that if someone was requesting a change, they should bring their request to a planning and zoning board meeting to state their co ncern s. Staff explained that the City sent out letters to all businesses in the city at the time inviting them to participate in that ordinance revision process. Staff state d that letters recently were m ailed to business owners in the city explaining temporary signage requirements . Currently, some businesses are in compliance while others are not. Business owners consider signage to be important for competetion with other businesses and the success of t heir sales. Some business owners are wondering why the city is preventing them from advertising their business with signage. The board was asked to address how many and how often temporary signs should be allowed for a business Board member comments i ncluded the following: • Window signage should be enough for business owners to advertise , in addition to the permitted temporary signage allowed . • The city should be enforcing those businesses that are not in compliance with the rules . • The number of allow able days for a temporary sign could seem r estrictive and arbitrary. Certain businesses do need signage to be successful and the ordinance could be less restrictive. The city should revisit the length of time allowed for temporary signs. • The city has st rict requirements to keep architectural standards in the city of high quality, therefore businesses should not cover up high quality architcture with increased signage . • The city should consider allowing temporary signs for a longer period, but should not consider allowing more signage.