Local business owners showed up in force Tuesday night to the Neosho City Council meeting for a scheduled public hearing that was supposed to have addressed proposed zoning revisions, particularly restrictions on signage.
It was announced at the start of the meeting, however, that the hearing had been postponed after Mayor Howard Birdsong requested more time to look over the 111-page document revising Chapter 405, zoning regulations, of the city code.
The public hearing has been rescheduled for the council’s next meeting on Sept. 16 at which time the council will also vote on the issue, on first reading. A final vote will then be taken at the subsequent council meeting on Oct. 7.
Last week, the city Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended that the council approve the revised zoning chapter, barring Article VI which deals with signage. Planning and Zoning have independently set up a work session for next Monday at 6 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers for members of the business community to help redraft Article VI for presentation to the council at the Sept. 16 meeting and ask for its adoption. The council can then choose whether or not to heed P&Z’s request.
“The city council is the last authority,” Birdsong noted. “What we have here are staff and P&Z recommendations. It is our prerogative on whether to accept in total or in part, or reject in total or in part. The process is for us to make the decision.”
The revised document, most recently modified by city staff but originally drafted by an outside attorney, has been considerably watered down since it was first introduced for review several months ago and raised the ire of some of the business community for its stiff regulations on signage.
According to City Manager Jan Blase, the ordinance has been diluted even more in just the past couple of days by removing restrictions on banners — which had been a particular sticky point for business owners — and relaxing the rules on other signs, as well as some lesser modifications.
The most recent revisions to the proposed document, however, haven’t yet been updated on the city’s website www.neoshomo.org, though Blase said that would probably be done later on this week.
According to a Tuesday memo from city planning technician Kim Messer, prohibitions left on the table would include bans on roof signs, signs on parked vehicles relating to advertising a nearby business, portable reader boards, signs attached to stop signs or utility poles, signs that obstruct vision, any sign that distracts drivers, signs displaying obscene or immoral matter and garage sale signs not issued by the city.
Signs would have to be strictly maintained, with repair to be mandated whenever “the damage to the sign or required maintenance exceeds 50 percent of the replacement value.”
Select temporary signs, including banners in the general right-of-way and promotional advertising signs, would be allowed “pending certain restrictions.”
Though Tuesday’s public hearing was postponed, local businessmen Ken Mayer, Richard Clemons and Gary Pearman all chose to go ahead and voice their thoughts anyway about the sign restrictions during the visitor’s business portion of the council meeting.
None of the three had seen the latest revision of the draft, as it hasn’t been posted.
Mayer, owner of GalaxSea Cruises on the Neosho Square, said he thought the business community at large has been pretty clear in indicating it didn’t like a lot of the proposed restrictions.
“I’m a life-long Neosho resident and business owner and I’m kind of disturbed at the provisions this (ordinance) takes,” Mayer said. “I think there is some middle ground and that it could be a lot more relaxed. I’ve seen our downtown retail business go away…and I think if our community is to grow we need to have more of a forgiving or relaxed environment to create growth and development here. I think that’s very critical and I think this proposed sign ordinance is not it and is not the right step to take.”
Clemons, owner of Mid-America Properties on LaQuesta Drive, said he understood that change was inevitable and that he supported what the city was trying to accomplish, but he asked the council to carefully review the proposed revisions and keep the interests of the business community in mind.
“I ask that you put yourself in the small business owner’s position as far as some of these sign restrictions go and thoroughly research the impact of your decision,” Clemons told the council.
Pearman, owner of Blue Ribbon Real Estate on Neosho Boulevard, suggested that the city look at what other towns in Neosho’s demographic, such as Carthage and Monett, were doing in regard to signs.
“We’re a small town, we’re a thriving town, and I would hate to see this kill business in our area,” Pearman said.
NOTEBOOK
Though signs have received by far the most attention, other proposed revisions to Chapter 405 of City Code includes adding zoning districts, removing public schools from zoning districts, removing inclusionary zoning districts, making certain changes to zoning districts, adding to the list of uses allowed by special use permit per zoning district, regulating landscaping and fencing (banning barbed wire in residential areas, front yard enclosures and limiting residential fences to six feet tall), regulating animal codes, as well as other nuisance code changes, and much more.
