A concerted pushback from Gretna business and property owners has quashed the passage of a proposed comprehensive sign ordinance, and now city officials plan to meet with community members to get more input on the law before it is considered again. The Gretna City Council voted unanimously to create a new signage committee composed of business representatives and residents...
A concerted pushback from Gretna business and property owners has quashed the passage of a proposed comprehensive sign ordinance, and now city officials plan to meet with community members to get more input on the law before it is considered again.
Gretna City Councilwoman Belinda ConstantThe Gretna City Council voted unanimously to create a new signage committee composed of business representatives and residents at a special meeting last month. That group will help create new guidelines for the city that are less onerous to businesses, but still palatable for residents.
The new committee, which was the brainchild of council members Vincent Cox III and Belinda Constant, will make recommendations to the council, which will have final approval on any ordinance. Gretna officials said any individuals interested in serving on the committee to contact the city so their name can be included in the nomination process.
Cox and Constant worked out the compromise after several business people at the meeting criticized Gretna's proposed signage rules for being too strict and too rigid. Cox noted that while it's important to listen to the complaints of business owners, it's also important that Gretna change its image.
"Our region looks different from other parts of this country," Cox said. "Not better, our region, in my opinion, looks worse."
However, business people accused Gretna of creating a one-size-fits-all ordinance without considering its impact on economic development. Some residents questioned if the city would allow appeals to the rulings of building officials, or if it would take into account a business' overall history when considering its signs. Other residents said that Gretna appeared to be eliminating sign types that were valuable to businesses.
Thomas McAlister, a representative for the Westside Shopping Center, complained that the height requirements under the ordinance, which created a maximum sign height of 30 feet, would clearly hurt businesses at the shopping center. Businesses that use massive signs to catch the eyes of drivers on the elevated West Bank Expressway would lose a a huge driver of customer traffic, he said.
McAlister asked how the city planned to handle existing signs.
"There has to be a better system of grandfathering in existing signs," said McAlister, who added that the original ordinance would have likely prevented the center from going forward with it's planned expansion. "Signs generate traffic sales, sales generate tax revenues."
Brian Coyler, a representative for CBS Outdoor, was disturbed by the ordinance's provisions that banned new billboards and any billboards not located along the West Bank Expressway. Coyler noted that the provisions would greatly hamper the growth of his company and would mean a loss of revenue for property owners in Gretna that have had billboards for years. The ordinance also would have prevented the company from replacing billboards severely damaged in a hurricane.
"We just ask the right that we not be legislated out of business," he said.
Some residents welcomed the stringent rules, noting that Gretna has been plagued by visual clutter. Zach Dieterich urged the council to adopt the proposed ordinance despite the complaints because it would ultimately stem a negative tide. He showed the council a presentation that detailed many of the dilapidated and abandoned signs throughout the city and urged quick action.
"This is an epidemic throughout the city," he said.
Constant noted that residents' complaints drove the council to develop the sign ordinance in the first place.
"We got here by speaking to some of the people who were here tonight," she said. "This was one of the things that was clear to us from public outcry."
Mayor Ronnie Harris said the city will attempt to work with business representatives to create an ordinance everyone can live with, but he warned that some action will have to be taken soon.
"To do nothing is not an option for us," Harris said.