County will unveil new sign proposal

The Monroe County planning staff will unveil a revised sign ordinance for the first time Tuesday at the Development Review Committee meeting at 1 p.m. at the Marathon Government Center.

“We’re still working on the ordinance,” said Senior Planning Director Townsley Schwab. “We’re going through it looking at things we can improve.”

Schwab said the DRC will be presented with a draft of a new sign ordinance at the meeting, “So they have something to chew over and make comments to.”

The current sign ordinance came under fire in January after a county code enforcement sweep resulted in 150 notices of violations, mostly for sign issues conducted in December 2008.

Local business owners lashed out at the current ordinance in front of the Board of County Commissioners, who promised that staff would take a look at what’s currently on the books and report back.

They gave staff a timetable of six months during which time enforcement of sign violations issued during the sweep was to be suspended. New violations, especially those involving lack of permits, would still be enforced, according to staff.

Once a new sign ordinance is put in place through BOCC approval, those violations not made conforming by the revisions will begin to make their way through the code enforcement process, according to Growth Management Director Drew Trivette.

“One of the areas we are looking at is off-premise signs,” said Schwab. “We are also looking at A-frame, or sandwich-board, signs.”

He said staff still hadn’t decided how exactly they would deal with that issue, but they got the message fairly clearly from a series of community meetings that the use of sandwich boards was the only means for some small businesses along US 1 to get exposure to passing motorists.

Nearly every business in the Keys relies on US 1 travelers for income. Not only is the highway the only road in and out of the island chain, it is also the primary business district.

“And that makes us unique from almost every other resort community out there,” said Schwab. “It takes considerable thought to put together a sign plan that satisfies the needs of the business community and still adheres to the community character and visual appeal of the Keys.”

He said thoughts on A-frame signs have included establishing a standard size that allows for traveler information and adheres to the community standards for a visual component.

He said staff is also looking at potential revisions to rules dealing with vehicular signs.

“What we want to do is clear up the confusion in the current codes,” said Schwab. “We want to make it clear what you can and can’t have and where you can and can’t park it.”

Schwab said staff agrees it’s unfair to force a vehicle that has a door sign telling people what business it belongs to and what that business does, where it’s located, and so forth, to park out of visual range of US 1.

“That’s an everyday vehicle. It should be allowed to park in any lawful parking space,” he said. “That’s not truly a sign.”

The problem arises, he added, when people paint the vehicle as a sign and park it in front of the building by the passing traffic. “That becomes an advertising medium, a sign, and we have to develop some clear rules for that.”

Because staff got a late start on the sign revisions, Schwab said they’ve been under some time constraints to get the revisions to the DRC Tuesday so the revisions can go to the planning commission June 24.

“If the planning commission needs two hearings, which we feel they might, it can go to the first July meeting and still make the Board of County Commissioners by the July 15 meeting,” he said.

That July 15 date would signify the end of the enforcement suspension period initially outlined by the BOCC.

Schwab said the ordinance itself will have to continue to evolve over time.

“There are details that still need to be fleshed out,” he said.

During the community meetings, business owners asked staff to look at landscaping issues where building codes require high buffers for sound attenuation and result in blocking business signs from view of passing motorists.

“I still believe landscaping is relevant to the use of the property, and we know the two issues complement one another,” said Schwab. “We will continue to look at that area as the sign regulations evolve.”

Schwab said that staff has also remembered, but not yet addressed, issues of varying right-of-way widths through the island chain.

In the Lower Keys, where the majority of US 1 is two lanes, the right-of-way can be 200 feet in width, placing any sign 40 feet or more from the travel lanes. In the Upper Keys, most of US 1 is four lanes, allowing signs to be much closer to the travel lanes and more noticeable by passing motorists.

“That is one of the details that has yet to be addressed. We have talked about tailoring sign sizes and sign lettering to distance from the road and travel speeds for certain areas to maximize visual impact,” he said.

He made it clear, however, that the Florida Department of Transportation allows no leeway in its rules prohibiting signs inside the US 1 right-of-way.

“We don’t control the state right-of-way and we cannot do anything that infringes on the right-of-way,” said Schwab.

Another area discussed includes changes to allowances on building-mounted signs. The current code all but prohibits business signs from extending above the roof line of a building, regardless of its height, although code allows free-standing signs to be as high as 24 feet from the ground.

“At first blush, it would seem that a standard height of 24 feet would make sense,” said Schwab. “But it’s not that simple. We could wind up with some extremely large roof-mounted signs that would not be in keeping with the visual impact standards of the communities.”

He said that design standards would be a big part of the eventual overhaul of the sign regulations, but added those details have also not yet been worked out.

Tuesday’s meeting is open to the public.

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