FARMINGTON — Small-business owners fought off attempts to impose new regulations on temporary banners this week, leading to a lopsided special town meeting vote against a warrant article that some local officials hoped would modernize the town’s sign regulations.
The town’s sign ordinance was adopted before the use of new styles of temporary banners, such as feather banners, which are long, thin advertising signs that hang from poles.
The ordinance already says the signs should not be around for more than 30 days, but the amendments explicitly would have limited the signs to no more than 30 days per year. The signs would have been limited to no more than 30 square feet and no more than one banner per 100 feet of road front, according to the proposal.
A turnout of small-business owners and their supporters overwhelmingly voted down a proposal to further regulate certain advertising signs. After an hour of discussion, residents voted 32-2 against the proposal to only allow feather banners.
“They felt this was too restrictive, even though there are already some restrictions in place,” said Town Manager Richard Davis.
Jyssica Boudreault, co-owner of Farmington Pawnsters, said the pawn shop employees were not in favor of the ordinance and are considering petitioning to overturn some of the existing regulations.
She said the three feather banners outside the Farmington Falls Road pawn shop make the business stand out to those driving by.
Davis said the purpose of the proposed amendment was to clarify how the town’s sign ordinance applied to new forms of advertisement that weren’t around when this version of the ordinance was first adopted in 1999. It has been amended five times since then.
Davis said the existing ordinance says the purpose of the sign regulation is to protect both business interests and the town’s interest in having signs displayed “in an orderly, safe and functional manner.”
Kaitlin Schroeder can be contacted at 861-9252, or at”
kschroeder@centralmaine.com
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