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Richland Council Moves to Loosen Roadside Sign Rules
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the ordinance?
BY NICK MCCORMACDo this, don’t do that, can’t you read the ordinance?That’s the perhaps confusing message Richland County Council is delivering regardingtemporary roadside signs that advertise everything from homes for sale to online datingservices.In May, County Council passed an ordinance to beef up regulations on such signs andenforce a law already in effect that bans them in public rights of way. The ordinance alsoallowed for the signs to be removed without permission of their owners.But real estate agents, arguing that the signs are essential to helping sell houses in a downeconomy, worked with the county planning department to draft a comprise allowing theadvertisements to be displayed on weekends.The new rules would allow signs with a permit sticker and clear directions to a physicaladdress or web site of a business to be posted from 5 p.m. on Fridays until midnight onSundays.County Council planned to take its third of three votes on the revised ordinance in a July21 meeting scheduled for after Free Times went to press.Opponents say the relaxed ordinance is a veritable Pandora’s box that would allow allmanner of businesses to clutter county roads with advertisements.“The ordinance could lead to thousands of signs polluting the county and we just don’thave the staff to police that many,” Councilwoman Val Hutchinson says. At a July 8council meeting, Hutchinson proposed an amendment that would strip sign owners of their permits after repeated violations. The amendment did not pass.Hutchinson agrees with Councilman Bill Malinowski’s sentiment that the signs are“legalized litter” and that the ordinance holds little weight.Miles Moriarty, president of a homeowners association in Northeast Richland, agrees thatthe compromise is a “slippery slope” and incongruous with County Council’s previousactions regarding the signs. Those include an advertising campaign aimed at preventingsuch visual clutter.“I don’t see any sense in the council passing something that in essence encourageslittering of our highways and byways,” Moriarty says.
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