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It's a sign: zoning regs not so clear, however
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
 | | The Monterey Town Council approved a conditional use permit last week for the Word of Faith Church to put up a new sign. (Recorder photo by James Jacenich) |
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MONTEREY - Signs are supposed to inform the public about a place and the activities taking place there. But the regulations governing signs in Highland County aren't as simple as the signs themselves. One resolved sign issue and another making its way through the planning review process illustrate some of the existing confusion over signs and the process governing them.
Church sign too big
The old wooden sign at Word of Faith Church in Monterey has seen better days. It is weather worn and covered with moss and ready to fall down. So the church ordered a new sign, this one carved in stone and roughly the same size as the old one.
Church representative Darlene Hill assumed the new sign was permitted since it was the same size as the old one. She found out the old sign exceeded zoning ordinance limits for size in a residential zone (10 square feet). The church is zoned R-5, a planned development district, which allows for larger scale development and mixed uses from business to residential, but the church falls under rules that apply to a more restricted R-2, residential zone.
The old sign, a carryover from the days when the church was on Main Street and the Monterey Historical District still existed, is closer to 20 square feet in size, the maximum allowed as a conditional use. The sign was apparently permitted under the direction of the now defunct architectural review board.
Hill asked Monterey Town Council what to do and it told her to go to the planning commission. The planning commission, in turn, reviewed the conditional use permit Hill submitted for the new sign, and made a recommendation to the town council.
Council and planners met in joint session last Thursday to hold a public hearing and make a decision regarding the new sign.
The church is on nearly seven acres of land between a line of residential houses on Spruce Street to the west, farmland to the south, Highland Medical Center to the east and Monterey Auto Parts to the north.
The sign sits on church property about 30 feet from the road and slightly to the left of the church's newly poured concrete drive way.
The sign will likely not be as tall as the old one because part of the stone will be sunk in the ground. It's a little wider than the old sign, though. Actually, if the entire size of the stone were considered a sign, it would slightly exceed 20 square feet and would not be permissible even as a conditional use.
However, the ordinance defines sign as "any words, lettering, parts of letters, figures, numerals, phrases, sentences, emblems, devices, design, trade names or marks, or combinations thereof, by which anything is made known …." The sign area is defined as "the smallest square, rectangle, triangle, circle, or combination thereof encompassing the entire advertising area, excluding architectural trim and structural supports."
"It is wide, the stone is wide," said Hill.
But the letters fit within the conditional use size limitation of 20 square feet.
Town attorney Melissa Dowd said the sign was not the "whole piece of rock."
But town councilman Francis Fenn was concerned a structure to support the sign could be any size since the ordinance didn't specify how large the structure should be.
"You could have a sign 20 feet long and 10 feet high if the lettering is only three feet?" he asked. His reason for asking was not about the Word of Faith sign in particular, but for the precedent set by allowing a sign over 20 square feet in size in this case might lead to being forced to permit size structures of almost any size.
Dowd refused to consider a hypothetical situation.
Fenn asked how close the sign would be to the road. Hill said it would go in the same place the existing sign was in.
"That's fairly close," said Fenn.
"I don't think they would put anything up that wouldn't be a nice, inviting sign, tastefully done, an addition to the area," said Monterey mayor Janice Warner. "I certainly would support it, even though we have to do something special to put it there. I would like to be able to see them use it."
"The sign is within compliance for a conditional use permit if we eliminate the base from the measurement," said planner Jim Cobb. "I agree the rock base would look good, however, how are we going to say in the future, your sign looks good, we'll permit it; your sign doesn't look good, we won't permit it? How are we going to hold people to a standard?"
"My interpretation is that if there are rocks holding the thing up it is a sign structure," said Dowd. "You are welcome to look at what language we have to work with."
"That's ambiguous," said Cobb.
"Look at the gas station sign, that blows any sign guidelines you've got out of the water," said councilman Sam Shell. Several gas stations in Monterey have large signs advertising their business, but the signs are typical for similar types of gas stations elsewhere in the county, the state and the region.
"Business and industrial districts we deal with differently," said Dowd. "This is a residential area."
"A permissible sign can't be more than 10 sq. ft, but someone can put a pile of rocks 20 feet high and put a sign on it," said Whitelaw.
"Why wasn't this done before the sign was bought?" asked Cobb, wondering why Hill didn't find out in advance the maximum sign size permitted by law before buying the new sign.
"That was my fault, I thought the existing sign was the allowed size," said Hill.
"I motion we pass on to town council with a favorable recommendation, with 20-feet limitation," said planner and town councilman Tony Stinnett. The planners passed the motion and forwarded it to the town council.
Shell made a motion to approve the sign as long as the sign area was less than 20 square feet.
The town hesitated before approving the conditional use, though. Warner wanted to ensure the location of the sign would not be in the right of way.
"It's beyond that, it's off the driveway," said Stinnett.
"I add to my motion to put the sign in the same place as the existing sign," said Shell.
Council approved the conditional use, much to Hill's apparent relief.
Botkin asks permission to put
signs at landscape business
Monterey resident David Botkin submitted a conditional use application to the planning commission so he could put up signs for the "display and sale of utility sheds or garden sheds, including utility signs with that." The signs would go in the same place as his landscape business on Mill Alley, Monterey, for which the town granted him a conditional use permit last December.
"He wants to display 5-6 sheds on premises," said Whitelaw. The on-site sheds are for display only. Customers would have their sheds delivered from somewhere else, probably Rockingham County, Whitelaw explained.
Town council had already left for the evening, leaving the initial review, and answers to any questions from the applicant, up to the planning commission.
That's when things got confusing. What size sign was allowed? How many? Did Botkin even need a conditional use permit to put up signs? The answers to these questions were not clear when the application was presented to planners for review. The applicant was clearly frustrated with the process after paying $100 for the application only to find out it was possible he didn't need one.
"The conditional use permit sign can't be more than 20 sq. ft. per sign," said Whitelaw. "Signs in a B-2, business zoned area are permitted a conditional use provided all requirements for sign area and character are met."
Dowd disagreed with the size limitation and the need for a conditional use, however. "One 35 square feet sign is permitted for business," she said. "In a business district a sign is permitted without a conditional use."
But wait.
Looking more closely at the zoning ordinance, Dowd reached another conclusion. Section 705.05-2 says a sign is permitted in a business district as long as a conditional use was not issued. "Signs related to conditional use - Jim's right, this is a conditional use," Dowd said. She continued reading under the heading of conditional uses, "In business uses signs are permitted the same sign area as a permitted sign for a business." Because Botkin's business is conditional, his signs have to be conditional, too, she reasoned.
Botkin's business is conditionally permitted one 35 square foot sign, and five secondary signs are conditionally permitted with an aggregate size of 50 square feet. The principal and secondary signs together can't exceed a total of 85 square feet.
A principal sign "names and describes the business," according to the zoning ordinance. Secondary signs "describe the merchandise or services offered, may be freestanding or displayed on the building."
"We need to leave here with him knowing what we know," said Cobb.
"You can get a 35 square foot sign," said Stinnett.
"That names and describes the business," said Dowd.
"In a B-2 zone, there is a 35 feet maximum height restriction and a 35 feet setback," said Cobb. "Accessory buildings are restricted to a 35 feet height and 20 feet side and rear setback."
Botkin wanted clarification on the working hours and the noise level permitted. Earlier in the month the town directed any complaints about the business to the planning commission.
"This piece of property is divided into six lots," said Botkin. "I only rent two. I'm getting slammered for working out there after 9 p.m."
"That's way outside our purview; you need to talk to town council," said Cobb.
"In the conditional use permit there were no time restrictions at all," said Whitelaw.
"And the town does not have a noise ordinance," Dowd added.
Planners set a public hearing on Botkin's request for a conditional use for signs for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 24. The town council did not also set a public hearing for the same time because they were no longer present at the meeting, but it is the normal practice for the town council and planners to hold a joint public hearing to expedite the applicant's request. Town council is not scheduled to have another meeting until August. The council will most likely have to hold a special session to vote to hold a public hearing on Botkin's sign conditional use application.
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