NorthwestJuly 21, 2000

Nathan Alford

After kicking up a storm of protest from businesses in its initial attempt to enforce a sign ordinance, the city of Lewiston is trying again.

This time, city staff worked with a group of business owners to come up with a revised ordinance.

The new ordinance -- the product of hundreds of hours of discussion and line-by-line review by staff and the business group -- seeks a balance between safety and aesthetic concerns and the needs of local businesses. It takes effect Oct. 1.

It was the ban on portable readerboards that got everyone's attention in the old ordinance, says Gary Church, owner of Lewiston's Baskin-Robins 31 ice cream store and a member of the Save Our Signs steering committee that worked with the city.

A portable readerboard is a sign with a changeable message that usually rests on a tubular steel stand or is mounted on a trailer.

"We came up with a good compromise," says Church. "There is more respect on both sides. ... Everyone at the city and the council need to be patted on the back.

"(Lewiston) will be a prettier city and everybody is an ambassador to the city. We need to represent ourselves well."

The code now requires all readerboards be on private property and cannot block the vision of driver or pedestrian traffic. The signs must be securely anchored and able to withstand an 80 mph wind.

However, some business owners still are unhappy.

Ken Turner, manager and son of the owner of the Orchards Pawn Shop, still has issues.

"I'm big on freedom of speech, and I believe they are infringing on free speech."

Turner thanked SOS for its negotiation efforts, "but as far as the city telling me how to advertise on my own property is infringing on a constitutional rights.

"Advertising is a way that businesses make money and when you take it away from private businesses you are taking money away from them."

Turner also is galled that sandwich-board signs will be allowed in downtown Lewiston, where trees obscure some signs.

"Why let them do that and us people in the Orchards and on 21st can't?

"Here is Big Brother telling us what to do."

The downtown business district is the only area where sandwich- board style signs are allowed. "The reason is because of poor visibility of the businesses in the district," says city planner John Murray.

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The concerns with readerboards were over safety and visual pollution, he says. "Those are the concerns that initiated this (enforcement) process."

The revised code was approved by the planning and zoning commission and adopted by the city council in April.

The revision process started after dissatisfaction erupted from the business community more than a year and a half ago in response to enforcement efforts. Until that time, enforcement of the sign code had not been a priority.

More than 100 letters were sent to code violators in the fall of 1998, says community development director Bob Bushfield.

"(It) created a firestorm of opposition."

More than 75 people attended a meeting with city staff, says chief building official Jerry L. Hume. At the time, Hume was the city planner responsible for enforcement.

After more than a year of bi-monthly ad hoc meetings between city staff and SOS, a compromise about readerboards was found.

The question facing the city now is how to implement the code.

Education is an important element, says Bushfield.

City staff already mailed brochures and made presentations to the chamber of commerce and on the public access channel.

"If we do a good job of providing information to the public," Bushfield says, "signs should be brought into voluntary compliance."

But he expects resistance by a small group of people.

The community development office is making an inventory of all the illegal signs on commercial corridors, says Murray.

By mid August everyone with an illegal sign will get a letter. "Then, we'll wait 30 days."

Beginning Oct. 1, he says, violators will be issued a citation.

Any person in violation of the code will be fined $100 per day. Each day of violation constitutes a separate offense.

"An illegal sign gets expensive very fast," says Murray.

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