Signs Ordincance Needs Enforcement
By Stacey Creasy
PLYMOUTH�They're back.
Signs of all shapes and sizes. Signs offering promises of weight loss, vitamins at low, low prices, that health insurance you've been looking for your entire life, and ways to make a fortune working out of your home.
This type of message delivers, Plymouth Plan Commis-sion member Kurt Garner believes, �Trash up the city."
The Plymouth Zoning Board of Appeals agrees. The BZA has recommended Plymouth Code Enforcement officer Shelley Church look into the sign issues and remove the ones that violate the city's ordinance on signs. That task alone could take some time.
"Just on two streets, Jefferson Street and Michigan Street, I'll bet I spotted 40 violations," Garner said. "I was just looking at the first two points of the ordinance. If you look at the entire things, I'll bet that number would triple."
The city has an ordinance against signs in the city's right of way and signs that have been up for too long.
During former Plymouth Mayor Jack Greenlee's second term in office (1995-1999), city attorney Nelson Chipman pushed for a sign ordinance banning most signs in the city right of way. The council supported Chipman and passed the measure.
There were a number of people opposed to the ordinance, residents who feared it would prevent them from erecting yard sale signs, but Chipman argued at the time a few people who put up those signs in the right of way and failed to remove them were among the people who inspired his desire to push for the city code.
"There was a sign ordinance on the books even before that ordinance was passed," Garner added. "That ordinance just added some strength to it."
At one time, the ordinance was strictly enforced. Plymouth Police officers were instructed to remove signs they spotted in the right of way.
In recent years Garner claims enforcement has become lax. The signs have sprouted up in the right of way. Utility poles have once again become makeshift billboards.
"I'm just asking that the ordinance be enforced," said Garner, who has compiled a list of some of the alleged violations.
Certain signs are exempt from the code. Political signs or any sign that is protected under the First Amendment right of free speech can be placed in the right of way.
The BZA asked Garner to share his list with the code enforcement officer in order to begin removing the signs once again.
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