Sandwich boards out-of-hand

Like anything else, the issue of sandwich board signs in the Lenox Historic District has gotten out-of-hand.

Any time you put the onus on the retailer, the retailer oversteps, creating the urgency of policing by the Lenox Historic District Commission (LHDC), the building inspector and the selectmen themselves.

Sandwich boards are authorized by the selectmen on a temporary time period of two weeks, not 13 weeks or 26 weeks or one year.

The purpose was to allow a merchant time to advertise while he/she went through the LHDC for approval and/or for having a sign made.

The district’s by-law 7.5.2 notes there are no temporary signs except by special permission of the selectmen, and temporary means two weeks.

The selectmen and the planning board are not going to resolve the issue without a hearing before the LHDC, whose responsibility is the historic district. They will then decided if there is an issue and, thus, form a committee to review.

The Massachusetts Historic Commission needs to be informed before any vote by any town agency or town meeting members’ vote on changes provided by law as to the proposed LHDC’s limitations. Tuesday night there were no merchants at the planning board’s public hearing.

Christopher C. Skelly, director of local government programs with the Massachusetts Historical Commission said, “Any ordinance or by-law creating an historic district may, from time to time, be amended in any manner not inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter by a two-thirds vote of a town meeting in a town, provided that the substance of such amendment has first been submitted to the historic district commission having jurisdiction over such district for its recommendation and its recommendation has been received or sixty days have elapsed without such recommendation.”

Posted by George C. Jordan III on November 15, 2012. Filed under Editorials,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry