NEWBURYPORT — A comprehensive solution to the debate over A-frame signs downtown will wait until at least fall. Instead, city officials plan to enforce the regulations already on the books for the rest of this year.
City Councilor Kathleen O'Connor Ives, chairwoman of the council's License and Permits Committee, said the panel decided not to come up with new regulations this season but will use the rules already available — rules that some downtown business owners say hurt their bottom lines.
"This is a solution to address the best we can the A-frame issue this season," Ives said. "The clearest and fairest way to do this on the short term is to apply the ordinance on the books."
Enforcement of the current ordinance means that following an Aug. 11 meeting of the City Council — if the full council affirms the recommendations voted by the License and Permits Committee last week — those signs now dotting the corners of Liberty and State streets and other downtown street corners will be removed.
Ives said last week the committee voted on 14 pending applications of businesses requesting permission to display A-frame signs.
Of the 14, three were approved since the requested location of the signs falls within the realm allowed by the ordinance. The current ordinance says signs must be adjacent to the building, no farther than 4 feet from the front door and require a $50 permit from City Hall.
The 11 applications the committee voted to deny, of which Ives would not release the names, requested signs outside those parameters outlined in the ordinance or requested permission to erect signs on private land, over which the City Council has no enforcement, Ives said.
"The ones that were requesting the sign outside the business were approved. The ones that were requesting locations at intersections, or other places away from their business, were recommended for denial," she said.
A-frame signs — and how to regulate them — have been a source of contention in the downtown for several summers.
Some in the city think the signs should be banned because of the clutter they cause, which they think ruins the aesthetics of the historic area. Others say the signs just need to be conformed to a certain style and the rules enforced.
Still others say the city needs a different kind of signage, such as so-called "North Pole" signs at each corner with directional signs to businesses. Many businesses, such as Licorice and Sloe Co. on Middle Street, say the A-frame signs help business.
Licorice and Sloe puts an A-frame sign at the corner of Middle and State streets, a location in the heart of the city's pedestrian traffic. The tea shop's manager, Bil Silliker, says the sign, which advertises special drinks or sandwiches for the day, draws people to his off-the-beaten-path location and is essential to his business.
"We're small little people, who are trying to make a living. Without that sign, I'm out of business," Silliker, who was not available for comment, said in a previous article.
The License and Permits Committee has met with downtown business owners and others in an attempt to create a more standardized system that helps meet the needs of businesses but caters to those who don't want cluttered downtown sidewalks.
During a recent meeting of the committee, many people voiced their ideas, almost all of which were different.
Ives said the committee will resume talks this fall, including with the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has talked about improving signs downtown, and the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority, which controls much of the sign regulations in the downtown retail district.
In the meantime, Ives said the best solution is to follow the current rules.
It is an "immediate solution" that will "prevent people from placing signs in places that would do damage to infrastructure or create problems for pedestrians," she said.
