PORT ANGELES — Vivian Bertelson says she was surprised to find that for most businesses the city is a flutter-free zone.
The manager of the Gateway Tavern put up a form of advertising several months ago on the outside of her business at 120 N. Lincoln St. that is fairly widely used by bars: the pendant-style banner advertising a particular brand of beer.
But since the banner can flutter in the wind, the city informed her last month that it is banned by the city’s sign ordinance, which provides few exceptions for banner-type advertising.
“I started to say, ‘What about everyone else?'” she said, referring to the other banners around town.
Confusion over what is allowed and what is not, especially in a city with a wide variety of signs and banners — whether they be big, small, painted, framed to a facade or extending over a sidewalk — is common among business owners, said city Planning Manager Sue Roberds.
“We need more outreach with sign compliance,” she admitted.
“In some cases, people really don’t know what they can and can’t put down.”
Roberds said the city’s sign ordinance — established downtown in the mid-1980s and expanded citywide in 2002 — is fairly strict on banners because they typically become worn and are not replaced — or get tossed about in the wind, therefore, adding to “visual clutter.”
The main exceptions are for car dealership advertisements, which are allowed to flutter, and the banners that the city strings across Front and First street.
Bertelson considered that a double-standard.
“Technically, the city is the biggest offender,” she said, referring to the banners over the streets.
Roberds said those banners are exempt because they advertise community events.
But do they also add to the visual clutter that the ordinance is intended to prevent?
Roberds said she doesn’t think so because they are replaced before they become worn and tattered.
“I know a lot of people don’t like that over Front Street,” she conceded.
10-day banners
The other exceptions in the ordinance that allows a business to use a banner is if it is for a grand opening or special event, and are taken down within 10 days, or if they are firmly secured, preferably framed to the building.
An example would be the banner on Maria’s Mexican Restaurant at 408 S. Lincoln St.
But the owners, Herbert and Maria Lutz, said the banner is only up because the sign ordinance kept them from replacing a sign that had been taken by a previous tenant.
The original sign, which was installed before the original sign ordinance, nonetheless violated the ordinance because it stuck out too far over the sidewalk and away from the building.
After the sign was removed n January 2008, the Lutzes said they bought another sign with same dimensions to replace it, but found they couldn’t put it up because of the citywide rules established in 2002.
“I thought that was crazy,” said a frustrated Herbert Lutz.
He added, “If I don’t have a sign, I don’t have much business.”
Thousands spent
The owners said they spent $6,300 on that sign and $6,400 on another that is code-compliant. The second sign is still going through the permitting process.
Herbert Lutz said he has been to City Hall several times seeking an exception.
Roberds said the city couldn’t give him an exception for not knowing the regulations.
“Anyone can make Lutz’s argument,” she said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
