Township Attorney Michael Herbert has drafted some changes to the township’s sign ordinance to try to prohibit the appearance of the permanent lease signs seen up and down Alexander Road’s commercial sector, as requested by council.
Herbert was asked to look into the matter after Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman stated she has asked for resolution to the problem over the past three years.##M:[more]##
At the September 2 meeting, Herbert reported that he looked at the existing ordinance, one section of which deals with permanent signs and one that deals with temporary signs, and said the problem is occurring because the temporary sign ordinance permits a commercial real estate broker to keep signs up if there is any vacancy in a building.
“The problem is that in a large building, you’re always going to have a vacancy, so what’s supposed to be a temporary sign is a permanent sign,” Herbert explained.
He said he tried to simply change some of the ordinance’s language to curb this problem. First, he lowered the size of the sign from 16 feet to four square feet, and lowered the maximum height from 20 feet to four feet. He also changed the language so that it requires that signs advertising vacancy be removed six months after the issuance of the final certificate of occupancy of the building.
“This is to help get a new structure off the ground,” Kleinman emphasized about the temporary signs. “It’s a new building, and during the whole time of construction, and for six months after, they’re allowed a certain leniency in terms of advertising the space. After that, you’re doing what everyone else does. You use the Internet. You pay for ads. You do what business does to advertise a vacancy. Our township doesn’t have to look like it’s up for rent.”
Herbert also said that once the ordinance is passed, the signs that are currently located on properties that have received the final certificate of occupancy more than six months ago will not be grandfathered in. It would just be a matter of having township staff call the owners of the properties and tell them to remove the signs.
Herbert said that his draft was somewhat generalized and that Planning Board Attorney Gerald Muller and Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner requested that the draft be sent to the board for review to make any corrections, and then that it be sent back to council. He said the board had already put the issue on the agenda for Wednesday, September 17.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers had asked that the board also look at limiting the types of temporary signs displayed in the township. For example, she asked if the township could only allow signs advertising events for the township or for the school district — including those events that are held in Plainsboro, since the towns share a school district — and not from other towns. She also asked whether the board could look at curbing the number of temporary signs on residents’ lawns. She said she had seen residents put up more than one temporary sign on their lawns advertising various contractors who might be performing work, like roofing, on their homes.
Herbert said the current ordinance limits the temporary contractor signs to 16 square feet, permits them only to be around while the work is being performed, and permits only one on each property at a time.
Herbert also said that prohibiting signs for events held in other towns would violate Constitutional rights of free speech, particularly pertaining to time, place, and manner.
