Perhaps all of our time spent in Council Chambers at Garden City  has not been in vain. Councilman Moser actually took the time to go on Boise’s website and compare the proposed G.C. draft to Boise’s sign code. He had a list of items in the draft that he addressed. The other Council members agreed that some items needed to be changed. They agreed to discuss and take a vote on the recommendations after someone puts together a comparison for them. The Northwest Sign Council has agreed to help them with this. How many times have we submitted a comparrison to them in different forms? Apparently they’ve never taken any of them seriously. Perhaps because Jenna, the City Planner, kept saying that the draft had very minimal differences compared to Boise’s sign code. It took one of their own along with James Carpentier, the consultant that the Northwest Sign Council hired, to get their attention. Below is a list of items that they will debate and vote on in the next few weeks: 

1. Distinctive materials signs vs. non-distinctive – too much disparity for non-distinctive sign size as compared to Boise. Distinctive is too subjective. Who decides what is “distinctive” ?
2. Promotional signs – 30 days per calendar year too short. Boise allows 3 x 30 days per year
3. NWSC recommendation to treat internally or externally illuminated sign the same
4. NWSC recommendation of NITS for Electronic Message Centers (EMC)
5. NWSC recommendation to increase area of EMC allowed from 30% to 50% of sign
6. NWSC recommendation not to use property frontage to determine the size of sign allowed, but give all the same size
7. MWSC suggestion – use linear ft. measure for wall sign allowance. Some members discussed using wall area
8. Non-Conforming Signs – Discuss a different trigger to be used such as when assessed value of property increases by 70% then non-conforming signs have to be brought into conformance. Open for suggestions but feels like 25% change to all things they listed in draft was too vague and too harsh
9. All tenants in a building or on a parcel shall be treated equally. If one business has to come into conformance with their sign, all in the business park or center should have to do the same
10. Max height of signs at 12’ or 14’ with architectural detail at top is too restrictive and dramatic of a change  

This last item was suggested by the Mayor. The City Attorney stated that the Mayor would not be allowed to vote because this is an ordinance and ordinances must be made law by the Council. There are four Council members. 

Jeff Souza doesn’t like signs in general and was very vocalized his opinion that Garden City does not have to be like or look like Boise or Meridian. Souza stated that promo signs are abusive. He likes the fact that EMC’s will help to rid the town of promotional signs. He brought up an example of McDonalds in Hailey, ID (which, for you out-of-towners, is near the Sun Valley Resort) and how they don’t have a big sign, but they do a booming business. Thankfully Councilman Mozer said that Garden City is not and never will be like Hailey,  Vail, CO. or any other resort town. Mozer said that they had gone down that road before and that it’s not going to work. 

Of the two women on the council, Higgins and Beaumont, Beaumont was more vocal last night. She said she doesn’t believe that businesses will not lease or purchase in G.C. because of a restrictive sign code. When she was on the Real Estate Board for Albertson’s some years ago, they never once considered a city’s sign code in their assessment of whether a parcel was where they wanted to build a store. She did say she would be open to debate some of the above issues, but doesn’t agree that all of them need to be changed. She still believes in working towards what the public discussed and said they wanted to see realized with the Comprehensive Plan that was adopted which is “Ammend the sign code to limit number and size of signs and promotional signs.” She said Council has to answer to residents and businesses alike. 

Higgins suggested that while they were going to look at Boise’s sign code for comparison that they should also look at Eagle’s. Moser shot that down immediately stating that G.C. has many more years of history than Eagle so, yes, it doesn’t look as pretty as Eagle when you drive thru, but Eagle has a serious problem with business vacancies. He obviously agrees that their problem is due, in part, to their ultra restrictive sign code. 

 More issues  need to be addressed in the draft than listed above, but this could be a pretty big step in the right direction. Garden City will have trouble with those items that don’t get amended before the draft is passed and ratified. They’ll probably have to find out the hard way on some items, but hopefully progress will be made on the above at the next meeting – Monday - November 6, 2010 - 6PM – Garden City Hall – City Council Chambers.