Commission Considers Changes to Temporary Sign Policy

Arnold’s Community Development director and Planning & Zoning commission members are considering changes to the city’s sign policy that may improve advertising for local businesses. 

The changes include reducing the temporary sign fee to $30 from $35, creating one-time fee for those signs and increasing the posting height for banners to 12 feet from 10 feet.

“We’re really trying to work with Arnold businesses to help make them successful,” said Dan Bish, the city’s Economic Development/Planner specialist, after the commission meeting on April 26 at City Hall at 2101 Jeffco Blvd.

The commission and community development department draft the building and sign ordinances which regulate businesses in Arnold. City council members must vote on any proposed changes to city ordinances. 

The city changed sign ordinance less than a year ago, Director of Community Development Mary Holden said to commissioners during the meeting.

Among the changes accepted last year were allowing temporary signs to be posted six times a year instead of four times, exempting public and private schools from certain sign laws, and stating that signs must be on private property and only on the lot of the business location, Holden said in a document to the commission.

The current $35 sign fee is appropriate compared the cost of reviewing, processing and compliance investigations but the department would consider lowering the fee, Holden said.

Commissioner and Ward 2 Councilman Jim Edwards, who Mayor Ron Counts appointed to the commission on April 21, suggested Holden research the effects of a one-time fee to business owners. Instead of processing the same applications each month, staffers could use the time to check business compliance. 

Holden also suggested exempting professionally made A-frame signs, also called Sandwich board signs, from the fee.  The signs must remain within 10 feet of the store entrance, located on the sidewalk, and removed from the sidewalk at the end of business hours, she said.

Commissioner Jeff Fitter said Holden needed to define the idea of a professionally made sign. Business owners could justify that an unattractive sign which they created with a magic marker, for example, complied with the ordinance. 

The commissioners asked Holden to provide a definition prior to sending the issue to the Arnold City Council for a vote.

“The ordinance also needs to have teeth not a $25 fine,” Fitter said. Businesses must have an incentive or expensive fee for ignoring with the ordinance.

The commissioners approved placing signs and banners on 12-foot poles without discussion. 

The next Planning and Zoning meeting will be on May 10 at City Hall.