Changes to Signs Coming to Blue Ridge?

During last weeks Blue Ridge City Council meeting, Blue Ridge Building/Zoning Inspector Roy Parsons addressed the current sign ordinance of Blue Ridge, and proposed ammendents to the ordinance that he thought would benefit the city.
At the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday, Parsons informed the council of a few ammendments that he wished for the council to consider in regards to the city’s existing sign ordinance.

Presently, one of the rules in the current sign ordinance of Blue Ridge dealing with Pole sign states that any sign located within 400 feet of the roadway of the Appalachian Development Highway (Georgia Route 515) says that the maximum sign display surface shall be 140 square feet and the maximum height of the sign shall be 50 feet. Parsons proposed on Tuesday that in his opinion, only properties with immediate frontage on 515 be allowed to have 140 square foot signs. Parsons later told tell FYN that the reason for these recommendations is because he believed he thought the changes would make the ordinance more simple to administrate and easier to regulate. Parsons also stated in the meeting that these were only recommendations and there was no scientic formula to develop a standard size sign, saying that the Mayor and Council could only make changes to the ordinance that they thought were significant to the community.

Parsons also recommended during the meeting a proposed change to the Corner Visibility Clearance policy of the sign ordinance. The current sign ordinance states that in any district no sign or sign structure above a height of four feet shall be maintained within 15 feet of the intersection of the right-of-way of two streets, or of a street with a railroad right-of-way. Parsons said that due to the fact automobiles are lower to the ground now than when the sign ordinance was first established 35 years ago, that he proposed changing the height of these signs to three feet. This he said, was because of his concerns of safety factors.

Lastly, Parsons suggested prohibiting two types of signs all together in the sign ordinance. Parsons recommended the prohibition of any and all types of vechicle signs, and the prohibiting of existing billboards from being used as a digital sign including having moving panels or digital panels. Vehicle signs, Parsons recommended, would be added to the list of signs that are currently listed as prohibited signs on the sign ordinance and would be completely outlawed. In regards to the prohibiting of digital signs, Parsons said that it was his opinion that these types of signs could be detrimental to the community because of lighting pollution. Parsons told FYN that he felt like prohibiting these types of signs would protect the City’s natural resources.

In the end, Parsons suggested to the council before closing that he could get an entire new sign ordinance made that so that they could look at the new ordinance to discuss any proposed changes and more at a further date. Even though no actual ammendments were made to the sign ordinance on Tuesday, it looks as though the way we view things in Blue Ridge might soon be changed.