Yorktown's Sign Law Needs Updating—and Enforcement | Yorktown, NY News TAPinto - TAPinto.net
Now that the political signs are—hopefully—gone, it’s time to deal with the chronic problems associated with Yorktown’s sign law. While the current Town Board started the process back in August, it will be up to the new board, taking office in January, to finish the job.
But first: Why is the sign law important? Who cares about signage?
We do. The residents of Yorktown. We care because signage says something about our community. Signs say we care about how our community looks. We want vibrant business hamlets, and we want to attract new businesses, but we don’t want visual clutter, a hodgepodge of too many signs, overly large signs, or distracting signs that are possible safety hazards.
So, what needs to be done?
The Town Board has two separate but related tasks: updating the current sign law to take into account new types of signs, like LED and digital signs and making sure that the law is constitutional, i.e., doesn’t restrict free speech, but also, and of critical importance, enforcing the current sign law.
Why go through all the effort to update the sign law if the new law, like the current law, won’t be enforced?
The failure to enforce the sign law is a chronic problem in Yorktown. Just look around. Illegal signs are everywhere, in plain sight, along our major roads and streets and on buildings. The problem is town-wide. There’s usually an illegal sign directly across from town hall.
• Signs on utility poles are illegal.
• Banner or wave signs are illegal.
• Inflatable signs are illegal.
• Signs that cover more than 25 percent of a window are illegal.
And when violations are ignored, as they are, they encourage even more violations.
Updating the sign law
In August, the Town Board directed the building inspector and planning director to work with the town attorney on amendments to the sign law.
But while all agreed that the law had to be amended to regulate the new types of signs, the board failed to give the department heads any sense of direction on how to deal with many of the most problematic parts of the current code. For example:
• Should banner signs be allowed? Some board members objected to them; others had no problem.
• Should sandwich signs, often placed on sidewalks be allowed? Some considered them a safety hazard.
• Should phone numbers be allowed on signs? For years, there have been two distinct schools of thought on this issue.
Before department heads start drafting amendments—based on their opinions—it would be helpful, and save time, if the Town Board, after listening to initial suggestions from the department heads, also reached out for input to ABACA (the Advisory Board on Architecture and Community Appearance, whose job it is to review sign permit applications in order to maintain consistent signage throughout town), as well as residents and the business community.
Constitutional issues
In a landmark 2015 case, the United States Supreme Court ruled that different types of temporary signs cannot be treated differently because of their content. But that’s exactly what Yorktown’s sign law does: there are separate requirements for temporary signs regulating fairs and carnivals, tag and garage sales, new business openings, and real estate developments. And because temporary opinion signs, like political signs, do not need a sign permit, there are NO regulations governing them, like size or when they can be displayed.
Coming up with a new sign law won’t be an easy job, mainly because the Town Board will likely have to balance the conflicting needs and concerns of different interest groups and because of the inherently subjective nature of signs. Which is all the more reason why, as early in the drafting process as possible, the board should seek out input from those different interests: the business community, residents, ABACA, and the department heads who administer the sign law.
Susan Siegel is a former town supervisor (2010-11) and town councilwoman (2014-15).
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source: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/yorktown/articles/yorktown-s-sign-law-needs-updating-and-enforcement
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