UNION — At the beginning of its Aug. 12 meeting, Union council fielded more questions about its ordinance regarding the placement of signs in residential yards as well as the status of a proposed housing development.
Resident Linda Black addressed council about its regulations regarding placement of signs in residential yards – specifically regarding how residents can determine if the sign is in the right-of-way.
Black said the information regarding where the right-of-way is on each street needs to be provided so that residents can determine where signs can be placed in their yards without being in violation of city code.
Black brought up the same issue at the July 8 meeting. She was upset that the city had confiscated several ‘Unite for Union’ signs residents had placed in their yards.
She pointed out that the only way residents could figure out the right-of-way measurements was to go to the county website to look it up.
She said there are no property boundary measurements on the county site and that residents have to ‘guesstimate’ the right-of-way. She felt that was not reasonable.
At the July 8 meeting City Manager John Applegate said the city has always returned signs to residents in the past, but stated the current situation has pushed the city to revisit what its policy is going to be regarding these types of signs, including signs supporting candidates or issues during upcoming elections.
After the July 8 meeting Black said she sent an email to Applegate on Friday, July 12 and another one on Saturday, July 13 asking questions and of those questions, she alleged that four questions remain unanswered.
One question was, “Can you please explain why the city initially held the Unite for Union signs and would not give them back per the phone conversation I had with Andy (Switzer) Friday, June 28.”
Question No. 2, “Until your new sign policy is put into place should I assume that any signs pulled by the city will be retrievable without a fee.”
Question No. 3. “As far as people being able to understand where their property line is, its seems that the first step of calculating that would be to know the right-of-way of any given street. Where would one go to find out the right-of-way for their street? Is their someplace online with this information, or would they have to call the city to find that out?”
Question No. 4, “Could you please explain what the next steps are with the development?” (A proposed rezoning of 17-plus acres of land north of Phillipsburg-Union and east of Old Mill roads for a 54 home housing development.)
“I think I should be able to get an answer within a timely fashion and a month later is not a timely fashion,” Black stated at the Aug. 12 meeting.
Applegate said it is each property owner’s responsibility to know where their property pins are located in case they want to put up a fence or add a driveway next to an adjacent property line or place a sign that does not violate the right-of-way.
He said the city is updating its database to determine what the right-of-way is for each street in each subdivision so that Building / Zoning Inspector Andy Switzer has a reference to use in each neighborhood. Switzer is responsible for removing a yard sign if it violates the right-of-way restriction.
“The policy we are working on is going to spell everything out so that it is perfectly clear from this point forward,” Applegate said at the July 8 meeting. “I am going to clarify it so that when somebody walks in here there is no question about signs and where they can be placed.”
Once written, the new sign ordinance will spell out all the rules regarding signs and would include any fees, if applicable, for residents to retrieve them from the city if a sign is removed for being within the right-of-way.
Applegate told Black at the Aug. 12 meeting that the new policy will go into effect Sept. 1. Any resident that contacts the city can find out how far away from the curb a sign can be placed in their yard so that it does not violate the right-of-way restriction.
She also inquired about the status of the development and wanted to know what the last step that had been completed was regarding the development and what the next step is that is being worked through.
Applegate said that other than rezoning of the land nothing more has transpired regarding the proposed subdivision other than a pre-application conference. No plans have been submitted by the developer. He said when the city receives a filing for a preliminary plat design he would contact Black to let her know.
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
