Businesses, residents chime in on signs

A meeting recently conducted to discuss the future of dynamic display signs in the city of Edwardsville resulted in a lively discussion and a better picture of how residents and business owners feel about the signs.

City Planner Scott Hanson provided some background on dynamic display signs to open the meeting.

The current ordinance was adopted in December, 2010, as new regulations were established that applied to dynamic display signs.

Changes to the ordinance included: minimum interval time between changes; no content that flashes; no animation; distance requirements from residentially-zoned property; limited size;, limited to only advertising for onsite business, service, product or public service/community service information; exclusion from historic downtown.

Currently, the city has 26 dynamic display signs. Of those, 19 were in place before 2010. The remaining seven were approved after the ordinance was adopted.

With the background completed, Hanson spoke about the survey on dynamic display signs.

The survey was administered through SurveyMonkey and posted on the city’s homepage, Facebook page and the city of Edwardsville Parks and Recreation page.

More than 500 people completed the survey, which consisted of a number of questions meant to gauge the thoughts of residents on dynamic display signs.

The result of the survey showed residents generally do notice them and most people would be concerned if one was placed near their home. The majority also agreed they are appropriate within the community provided they are regulated and stay in areas near businesses. The majority also supported regulations establishing criteria for the signs. 

Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Desiree Bennyhoff also conducted a survey targeting businesses within Edwardsville with specific questions about dynamic display signs.

Bennyhoff said the survey was presented to 264 businesses in Edwardsville with 79 responding.

The results of the survey showed the majority of business owners see signage as important for promoting their business. The majority also sees signs as a way to drive business and a way for people to locate a business. In addition, the majority sees  dynamic display signs as a good way to advertise, but also agree that brand identification and architectural fit matter when choosing a type of sign. Lastly, they see the signs as appropriate in a community and should remain as an option as long as safety concerns are addressed and aesthetic concerns are considered.

“The business community really does want to feel included and appreciated and I think that our goal in conducting this survey and working with the city officials was a really a valuable piece to that and the businesses certainly appreciated us seeking their feedback and bringing it here this evening,” Bennyhoff said.

The meeting was then opened up for public comment.

The first comment was an e-mail sent to Mayor Hal Patton from residents who were not able to come to the meeting.

In the statement read by Assistant City Planner Cheryl Porter, the authors, John and Judi Jennetten,  encouraged the council to ban dynamic display signs. 

“Since we cannot attend the meeting to voice our concerns, we wanted you to be aware of our strong objections to electronic signs. From an aesthetic viewpoint, these signs will cause a trashy appearance in our community. These unsightly signs are an example of poor vision for the future growth of Edwardsville and will consequently have a negative effect on the local economy. Other area communities look to Edwardsville for leadership. If we allow electronic signs we are setting a poor example. We certainly hope that a moratorium will be enacted to prevent more of these highly unsightly, Las Vegas-style signs coming into our community. Please do not succumb to the pressure from the Chamber of Commerce and do what is right for the community of Edwardsville,” the Jennettens wrote. 

Members of the audience, including members of the business community, spoke after the letter was read. The general consensus was to keep the signs as an option for business owners, but to regulate them.

“I’m certainly in favor of restrictions that would keep the beautification and the nice community we have, yet still allow us to retain the investments we have made for marketing and invested in the community,” Culver’s owner Kelly Cobb said.

Further, Cobb pointed out that the signs are not only used to generate business but also are used to bring awareness to community events, something that others who spoke mentioned.

Senior Vice President of First Clover Leaf Bank Chad Abernathy also spoke in favor of the signs, pointing out the use in promoting community events. He also said they are better looking then the old back-lit monument signs.

“If you drive through town and really look at the signs, the older signs – the manual signs that you swap out the letters – the plastic is yellow, the plastic is cracked. It really doesn’t look that well. The dynamic displays are a sizable investment and it is in our best interest to keep those very well maintained,” Abernathy said.

Abernathy concluded his comments saying he hopes the aldermen take these things into consideration.

Executive Vice President for TheBANK of Edwardsville Rich Watson addressed safety concerns with the signs, saying there was little to no evidence the signs are a safety hazard.

Watson continued that putting a limitation for space between signs could create an unfair environment.

“I think as we’ve gone along I’ve heard things like in the survey maybe there should be a minimum distance of 150 feet between one dynamic sign and another. I expressed this to an earlier meeting of the ACS committee. If I had a competitor across the street and we both have a dynamic display sign, if that were to go into affect, one of our signs stops working or is destroyed in a storm or something to that affect, my understanding would be, whichever one of us was unlucky enough to have that sign removed, you’re not putting another one back up. I feel that is somewhat of an unfair advantage, because of the proximity of where we are now,” Watson said.

Watson finished saying it was his opinion to keep  the current process in place.

Cindy Reinhardt, a member of the Edwardsville Historic Preservation Commission, pointed out that although the look of the dynamic display signs does not fit with the historic look of the city, that does not mean they do not have a place within the community.

“There are some that are very attractive and I have to say especially with the banks. You’re very conservative folks and so you put up nice attractive dynamic sign displays, but if you get somebody in that is, say, a gun shop or lingerie store or whatever, you could end up with something really different from what you see from a bank and so I really think it is important that it be pretty strictly regulated because although most of you won’t do something that is detrimental, there are those that would have. There are people you think the bigger splash you make, the more you’re going to be noticed,” Reinhardt said.

In response to the comments from the business owners, Alderman Will Krause asked about their willingness to abide by some fairly constructed rules.

Watson responded that with the amount of signs, there are different answers.

“With some of the more recent ones, you’ve probably got the ability to go in through programing and pretty much, like ours, at night the light level automatically goes down and it automatically goes back during the day. Things of that nature ours can do. Now other folks may not, it just really depends on the particular sign,” Watson said.

For Alderman Tom Butts, the solution is to try find a non-subjective way to decide what signs are approved and not to ban them altogether.

“The thing that I kept writing down is, how do we make it non-subjective. I agree with the ideal that you can’t make a one-size-fits-all, but what we run into is, if something fits within our ordinance and somebody wants to bring it forward, there usually is not a section in there for good taste and that’s real hard to regulate and you become subjective,” Butts said.

The possibility of a large number of dynamic display signs coming to the Edwardsville and safety are Alderman Janet Stack’s concerns.

“Edwardsville is a place that businesses want to come to because of the way Edwardsville is. I try to support the local businesses, but there has to be some give and take, too. We don’t want a Las Vegas effect. I’ve had more people tell me we are looking like Fairview Heights and that concerns me,because I definitely don’t want to be Fairview Heights,” Stack said.

Abernathy said he would be willing to take part in further discussion in order to address concerns, a comment echoed by many of the business owners.

Hanson said currently an ad hoc committee with aldermen Craig Louer and Krause co-chairing was formed to handle this issue and this would be a good place to discuss this further.

With a ban being something Alderman Barb Stamer opposes, having all of the signs comply with the same standards is a way to avoid problems.

No formal action was taken  and according to Hanson, the current moratorium  is likely to be extended.

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