Most Newberry signs violate city’s sign ordinance

City to extend deadline to conform until 2012

 A recent survey of the city’s signs concluded that nearly three-fourths of them are in violation of the city’s ordinance.

“The result of this survey has demonstrated that the absolute number of violations and non conformities would require that almost every business in town would need to change their signage at some point in time,” wrote Lowell Garrett, planning director, in a memo to the planning and zoning board.

“This is an impossible enforcement problem.”

Garrett suggested and commissioners agreed that coming down on the city’s businesses all at the same time would be the wrong way to approach the problem.

Instead, Newberry will give sign owners in violation of the city’s sign ordinance a break during the current tough economic times.

Most of the signs were built before the sign ordinance was approved in 2005.

The list of violators includes 27 outright violations, four locations where signs have been enlarged or additional signs have been posted without a permit, two locations where vehicles are being used as signs and 23 legal non-conforming signs.

To address the problem, the city will send extend the deadline until 2012. In the meantime, Garrett said businesses with sign violations will be notified over the summer to give them plenty of time to come into conformity.

Another tactic the city is considering is revising the ordinance, possibly through public workshops.

“Staff suggests that the current set of regulations, although well intended, need to be reviewed as to their applicability to the business climate of the city,” Garrett wrote, in a memo to the planning and zoning board. “This is not to say that we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but staff is suggesting refinement of the regulations.”