Planners will hear new rules for signs

By Steve Estes

The Monroe County Planning Commission will again tackle a new set of sign rules for businesses along the US 1 corridor Wednesday.

The proposal currently before the commission loosens the rules on sandwich board or A-frame signs along US 1. That type of sign is prohibited under the rules in place today.

Sandwich board signs were the primary target of a code enforcement sweep along US 1 in December last year. Code officers issued 150 citations, mostly for sandwich board signs and right-of-way infractions.

Local business owners, for years critical of that they call “Draconian” sign rules for Monroe County, expressed their displeasure over the code sweep to the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners and asked that the county look at the sign rules again.

Local business owners argued that sandwich boards were one of the few methods they have of reaching travelers on US 1.

The county commission agreed to suspend enforcement of the sign-related violations handed out during the sweep for six months or until they could adopt a new set of rules. If the new rules bring the signs targeted in the sweep into compliance, the code actions will be dropped. If they don’t come into compliance with the new rules, the code actions will proceed.

Planners are proposing that every business frontage be allowed one A-frame sign of no more than six square feet. It cannot rest on the state right-of-way. Florida Department of Transportation rules prohibit commercial signage on the US 1 right-of-way.

Both local business owners and members of the planning commission had some issues with that proposal when it was presented last month.

Commissioner Jim Cameron said he felt as though six square feet would not be enough sign face to address the needs of business owners in the Lower Keys where the right-of-way can be as much as 100 feet in depth from the center line of US 1. A car in the opposite travel lane could be as much as 100 feet from the sign and unable to see it before they can safely slow down and make a turn.

Cameron also questioned the one sign per frontage allowance. He said he feels as though the measure does nothing to address commercial properties with multiple store fronts.

“If there are four stores, what do they do?” asked Cameron. “Will businesses have to share the six feet, or draw straws to see who gets it this time?”

Senior Director of Planning Townsley Schwab told the planning commission that the sign ordinance would be a work in progress.

“We have not seen the last of this,” he said.

Schwab said that during public input meetings held throughout the Keys in May, the use of sandwich boards was a priority to business owners who attended.

“This is an issue we felt we could deal with, in the time allotted, in a thorough manner,” he said. “We know there are other areas that need attention.”

Cameron told planners that a one-size approach probably wasn’t going to deal effectively with the sign issue considering the varying depths of right-of-way along US 1 and areas where foliage masks a property until the driver is next to it, leaving no time to take advantage of the information on the sign.

Schwab said the thought is that smaller signs will limit the amount of information that can be placed on them to names and location information in most cases. Other information about a business can be taken care of by building-mounted signs once the driver is in the area.

There are no proposed changes to building-mounted or ground-mounted signs in the current iteration of the sign ordinance revision, but they will be addressed later, said Schwab.

The new proposal also allows for wider latitude in off-premise signage. Currently off-premise signage is very limited. The proposal would allow off-premise signage, primarily for directions and names, on another commercial parcel as long as the business is on a side street that connects to US 1 and within a half mile.

The off-premise signage dedicated to other businesses, however, would be subtracted from the total of allowable signage at the host property.

And Cameron also wasn’t enamored of that idea.

He said that it would be very difficult, given the limited signage available to businesses, to get a commercial property to give up part of what it is allowed for a business that motorists can’t se as they drive past.

The Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce has agreed to support changes in the sign ordinance that enhance prospects for its membership from the south end of 7-Mile Bridge to Stock Island and is expected to submit a more detailed analysis at Wednesday’s meeting.

Schwab said that signage is always a difficult issue because it can change the character of a community.

“We have to balance the needs of the residents and motoring public with the needs of the business owners without making the roadside an eyesore,” said Schwab.

He said that in later iterations of the sign ordinance planners hopes to address landscape buffers, sign heights for building-mounted signs and possible centralized locations for off-premise signs.

The current proposal also attempts to clarify the use of vehicular-mounted signs. If the sign is incidental to the use of the vehicle or trailer, such as identifying the business to which it belongs, the vehicle can be parked in any legal parking space off the right-of-way. The vehicle must be lawful to use on public streets. Vehicles and trailers painted to serve as advertising medium for any particular business must be parked out of sight of public rights-of-way, according to the proposal.

The planning commission’s recommendations on the ordinance are scheduled to be forward to the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners for the July 15 meeting.