Lee Planning Board endorses sign bylaw changes

LEE – The planning board has given its endorsement to three proposed sign bylaw changes being pushed by the Planned Commercial Village Center.

The first two changes would allow for the Planned Commercial Village Center to have off-premises advertising for nationally-recognized brands and local attractions on shopping center light pole and streetlight banners in certain areas and to expand the size of these banners from 28 square feet to 35 square feet.

The second change would allow advertising on one side of directory sign boards by on-site retailers, nationally-recognized brands and local attractions.

Both of these forms of advertising would be allowed by permit only.

The vote came after a hearing at the board’s April 8 meeting.

Attorney Don Hunter, representing the Planned Commercial Village Center, was the chief advocate for the proposed changes at the hearing.

The only person who spoke against the proposed changes was town meeting representative, downtown business owner and board of selectmen candidate Anne Tourville Langlais.

Ms. Langlais said she didn’t like the idea of the commercial village gaining additional sign rights.

She said some of the 49 business owners she’d talked to before the meeting had expressed a concern that customers seeing advertisements for national brands on the proposed signs would persuade them to save their money and not spend it downtown.

“If, up at the outlet village, they’re shopping, they’ve only got that certain amount left to spend, and they see that advertisement sign, and they go ‘Oh well, geez, I better not go into town or I’d better save this money because I want to get that product,'” said Ms. Langlais. “That to me is kind of the idea…of how it could possibly take revenue from small town business.”

This argument didn’t seem persuasive to the planning board members.

“Persuading people to spend?” said Planning Board Chairman David Durante. “Well, that’s what they went there for.”

Ms. Langalis also objected to the broadness of the term national brand: “It’s such a vast word, national brand. There’s no…specification about what…national brand really does mean.”

Chairman Durante said the real purpose of the off-premises sign rules was to prevent the town from being filled with signs for crosstown businesses, and the proposed signs wouldn’t do that.

“They’re really not sending them anywhere at all,” he said.

When asked by Planning Board Member Harold Sherman what language she would prefer on the national brand issue, Mr. Langlais said she’d like to consult the community on it: “I’ll go around, talk to the other businesses, and see what people have for ideas.”

“There’s a safety valve here,” said Chairman Durante. “Any banner they want to put up has to come before this board for a sign permit.”

“We added that because that…wasn’t in there before,” said Atty. Hunter, noting the center’s 28-foot banners were by right. “To make absolutely sure that we weren’t gonna do something in competition with Lee, we added the language that it required a permit.”

“The vagueness actually does two things. It allows them to ask for anything, and it allows this board to deny anything,” said Chairman Durante. “I don’t think there’s a real danger there.”

The board voted unanimously to endorse the changes. They will now have to be approved by Lee’s town meeting if they are to become law.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on April 18, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry