Sign ordinance needs tweaking, council says

"Lots of tweaking" will need to be done to Shelbyville's existing sign ordinance to bring it into line with the city council's wishes, and many businesses would be in violation the way it is currently written.

Also, council members are hoping to reach out to Hispanic business owners about the appearance of their buildings.

Last month, Mayor Wallace Cartwright told the council he has been hearing many concerns from residents and businesses about the appearance of local Hispanic establishments in Shelbyville and wanted to alter the city's ordinance to say that signs cannot be painted on buildings, among other changes.

However, city manager Ed Craig said the current ordinance is complicated and pointed out to the council that the way it is written now, businesses like Wal-Mart and others would be in violation.

The ordinance states the signs can be no more than 100 square feet or 20 percent of the building space, whichever is less, Craig said.

Another section states that the total display surface area of a sign for any one business can be only 150 square feet.

"Keep that in mind as you drive around town and look at businesses where signs look perfectly great," Craig said. "There's no question that the signs in front of Lowe's and Wal-Mart are nice and proportional to the business, but they are more than 150 square foot."

Craig said, "There's obviously some tweaking we've got to do in this ordinance so that signs that are attractive and proportional are not prohibited by it."

The ordinance only deals with size of the sign, not the writing or the quality of the lettering, Craig explained. It also only deals with outdoor signs, not window signs, and ordinances in other cities limit the amount of window signs to 20 percent.

Craig said some business in question have nearly 100 percent window signage, which creates "a cluttered look." The city manager said he will continue to look into the issue and try to come up with something "appropriate in terms of size and colors."

Councilman Lee Roy Cunningham suggested adding a section to require professional lettering to have the "signs look nice instead of so trashy."

"Has anybody been to these people and told them they need to clean their buildings up in a nice way?" Cunningham asked. "I hate to go tell anybody to do anything."

He said he would rather approach the businesses to clean up on their own instead of having to pass an ordinance.

Craig said he did not know how to approach that, saying the city would be imposing quality standards on businesses.

Councilman Al Stephenson pointed out a statement in the Times-Gazette from Luci Taylor, a leader in the local Hispanic community, that the business people want to be good neighbors.

He suggested that the mayor, planning and codes director Kip Green and Taylor "go to the places in question and have Lucy talk to these people, we might be able to get some good results."

But council member Kay Rose said the issue was about more than one ethnic group.

"There are tacky signs all over town," she said.

Stephenson agreed and said that the council can do this also while looking at changing the ordinance.

Cartwright said he was "not against any group of people" and that the rules should cover everybody. He added he has also been talking to Taylor on a variety of issues, including this one.

"We need to make our ordinance reflect what is acceptable that would apply to Wal-Mart and Lowe's as well as everybody else," Craig said. But he added that the city can still address those businesses who are not in compliance.