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Commission moves closer to sign ordinance approval

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — Although there were pockets of contention and a non-unanimous vote, the city of Albany moved a step closer to a more business-friendly sign ordinance Tuesday when the Albany City Commission voted 5-2 during its work session to approve changes to the proposed ordinance presented by Planning Director Howard Brown.

Commissioners Jon Howard and Bob Langstaff, who had some issues with the language of the proposed changes to the ordinance, voted against approval during the non-binding vote. The matter will be presented for a final vote at the commission’s June 25 business session.

“We can debate this until there are no signs left in Albany, but the time has come to move forward,” Commissioner Tommie Postell said. “It seems with these (proposed) changes we’ve addressed the issues that have been holding us back.”

The two issues that had drawn the most ire from small business owners in the city were the size and permissible change frequency of multimessage signs utilizing LED technology. As previously proposed, the message on any sign larger than eight square feet in diameter could be changed only once in a 24-hour period.

Commissioners voted to table a planned vote on the ordinance at their May 27 business meeting when a number of business owners complained that such stipulations would hinder their earning capabilities.

Staff amended the proposed ordinance to allow for message changes at one-minute intervals on signs in which the message surface area is limited to 50 percent of the sign’s total area. The new proposal also limits the total number of such signs in the city to 75.

“I’m happy that city leadership has identified the problems with the proposed ordinance and created alternate solutions,” Brown said after the commission meeting. “This whole thing has gone through the required process, and I think it’s a process that worked.

“We came up with a plan, presented the plan, got feedback from the community and now we’ve made changes to meet the needs of the city. I think this body has done a good job of creating a product that’s going to work for the city from now on down the road.”

Other proposed changes accepted by the commission Tuesday include allowing new billboards only in restricted districts of the city, limiting to seven the number of multiple-message billboards and allowing such billboards only on certain roads (excluding Pine Avenue and Palmyra Road), and spelling out the means by which current illegal signs may be brought into compliance.

Commissioner Dorothy Hubbard, who has opposed allowing changes to multimessage signs at intervals of less than 24 hours, grudgingly threw her support behind the one-minute interval changes.

“I’ll concede the issue of changes on one-minute intervals,” she said. “But before we take a (binding) vote, I plan to talk with my constituents who have registered complaints (about interval changes) and make sure they have no questions.”

Howard expressed opposition to a cap number of 75 multimessage signs, while Langstaff said requiring signs whose surface area did not make up at least 50 percent of the total area of the sign to add other elements contributed to the city’s “blight.”

“It seems counterintuitive to add to the sign blight by (forcing businesses) to increase the surface area of the signs not in compliance,” Langstaff said. “I’d rather we ‘grandfather in’ such signs.”

When told that the ordinance could not grandfather in signs that were already illegal under the ordinance, Langstaff said, “Yet, we’re saying it’s OK to do that with the billboards, but not with these signs.”

In answer to a question by Commissioner Roger Marietta about business owners taking steps to comply with the ordinance, Brown said, “If this ordinance is adopted, the moratorium on (new multimessage signs) no longer exists. Businesses then may do what is necessary to get in compliance.”

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