{"id":95480,"date":"2019-02-15T13:47:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T20:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-council-to-vote-on-sign-code-update\/"},"modified":"2019-02-15T13:47:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T20:47:32","slug":"city-council-to-vote-on-sign-code-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-council-to-vote-on-sign-code-update\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council to vote on sign code update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Some
Some business owners rely on sandwich board signs to advertise daily specials or to bring attention to their storefront. The city is considering banning them. City Council is expected to vote on an update of the sign code at its meeting Tuesday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Business Improvement District is encouraging business owners to offer their views about the sign code update at the Durango City Council meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tim Walsworth, BID executive director, said two proposals have drawn questions from business owners: eliminating sandwich board signs on public rights of way, including sidewalks, and limiting the time and size of banner signs in the Central Business District and multiuse neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cBID isn\u2019t taking a position on the sign code. Our own polling shows our members are split down the middle,\u201d Walsworth said.<\/p>\n

Sandwich boards, which frequently can be seen downtown, are technically illegal on public rights of way, including sidewalks. Walsworth said the update of the sign code offered an opportunity to allow them.<\/p>\n

However, after exploring efforts to allow sandwich boards, the final draft of the ordinance maintains the ban.<\/p>\n

Colleen O\u2019Brien, with the city of Durango\u2019s Community Development Department, said City Council, Planning Commission and the Design Review Board all concurred the sign ordinance should be consistent with the recently passed ordinance that bans sitting and lying on sidewalks. That ordinance puts a premium on avoiding sidewalk obstructions.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said the city was \u201cgoing light\u201d on its enforcement of temporary signs, including sandwich boards, since a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that placed greater restrictions on the ability of municipalities to impose content restrictions on signs.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court ruling kicked off a review of Durango\u2019s entire sign ordinance in April 2018, O\u2019Brien said. The review included several public meetings on the new code and a revision of the original draft based on public comments. The code, as currently written, passed the Durango Planning Commission on Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said the city will work with businesses to explore options to sandwich boards. She added sandwich boards will be allowed on private property. She cited Cream Bean Berry, 1021 Main Ave., which has a small, privately owned alcove where a sandwich board could be placed. Sandwich boards could also be placed in privately owned parking lots.<\/p>\n

If City Council adopts the revised sign code, it would be effective April 3.<\/p>\n

Terry Hutchison, owner of YESS The Book Hutch<\/a>, 143 E. Ninth St., said she would have liked to see sandwich boards allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us on the side streets, it provides good visibility. There\u2019s no other way people will know we\u2019re here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Terry
Terry Hutchison, owner of YESS The Book Hutch, said she will likely close her bookstore if the city enforces a rule banning sandwich board signs on sidewalks.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It\u2019s hard, she said, to understand why her 2-foot sandwich board sign would be banned when bike racks taking up more space are allowed on sidewalks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told them (city officials) I\u2019d probably just close, and they seemed just fine with that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cream Bean Berry<\/a> owner Katie Burford said her ice cream flavors changing daily and her sandwich board is the most effective way to quickly communicate with passers-by.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, I see people walk by who stop in and say, \u2018I wasn\u2019t planning on coming in, but you have my favorite flavor,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While she understands the city\u2019s concerns about sandwich board signs obstructing sidewalks and creating a hazard in bad weather, she would like to see the city be more flexible \u2013 perhaps allowing smaller sandwich boards that are weighted in place.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

encourages business owners to offer comment at Feb. 19 meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[1020],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-durango-city-council"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95480"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}