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Sign ordinance change drawing pushback before passage

Jesse Hollett
Posted 6/22/16

ORANGE PARK – A proposal to eliminate pole signs for small businesses within the Town of Orange Park is already gaining opposition from businesses, including a sign shop.

The draft ordinance …

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Sign ordinance change drawing pushback before passage


Posted

ORANGE PARK – A proposal to eliminate pole signs for small businesses within the Town of Orange Park is already gaining opposition from businesses, including a sign shop.

The draft ordinance currently under consideration calls for small businesses to switch legacy pole signs for monument signs within 10 years.

City officials claim the amendment would minimize visual clutter and “foster the integration of signage with architectural and landscape designs,” but John Young, co-owner of A Newton & Young Insurance, said the town is overstepping its boundaries.

“I don’t see anything wrong with many of the current signs that are being encompassed in their new ordinance,” Young said. “My sign will have to come down. I’m sorry but I don’t see that sign offensive, or objectionable. I’m a business owner. I need business. I won’t have taxes to pay the city if I don’t have a business.”

Young paid $5,000 to refurbish his 16-foot high pole when he moved his business from Wells Road to Kingsley Avenue less than a month ago, and said he didn’t want his investment to go to waste.

Young and the owners of Custom Graphics & Sign Designs, located just outside town’s limits, have teamed up to educate the estimated 175 small business owners in Orange Park that the regulation would affect.

“It would be great for me business-wise, not so great for local businesses though,” said Jamie Thole, co-owner of Custom Graphics. “We didn’t know why they were changing it. The town isn’t very large and there’s not a lot of new development. It’s mostly developed as is, so the idea of changing it is mostly a surprise.”

Custom signs can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $30,000, Thole said. The proposed regulations won’t affect his signs because his shop is just outside town limits, but it could impact 75 percent of all Orange Park business owners who would need new signs over the next 10 years if the amendment passes.

Town Manager Jim Hanson said the regulations are still subject to change from staff and resident input, however he added that the appearance of the town’s commercial areas has been a subject of discussion with the council since he’s been with the town.

“They don’t always present the best appearance,” Hanson said. “I think the town council would like to see that improved. The pole and pylon signs, particularly the older ones, do not provide a very attractive appearance of our commercial areas, and we think it would be appropriate to clean up the looks of the commercial areas.”

According to Hanson, Clay County government adopted standardized signage regulation on Fleming Island’s strip malls along County Road 220 in recent years. He said regulations like these were part of a growing conversation among local and state governments to reduce sign pollution and increase public safety.

The proposal also prohibits sign spinners, digital signs and light-up signs along Park and Kingsley Avenues in an effort to decrease driver distraction and increase traffic safety.

Town staff will hold one more workshop on the amendments then await approval from the Environmental Quality Board and Planning and Zoning Board before the town council gets to vote on it. The town council has read over drafts of the regulations that pertain to standing pole and pylon signs.

In the meantime, Young will continue to inform business owners in the town about the proposed regulations in the hopes his voice will be heard at the next town council meeting on June 28 and future meetings.

“I hope that the next town council meeting a large number of business owners are present and show up,” Young said. “I think this was done very much without any press, kind of below the radar, and I just felt it was my duty as a business owner, knowing how difficult business is, to help inform all my peers that this was happening. The vast majority of them had no clue.”