In an effort to make the city more business-friendly, Navasota City Council recently spent the better part of a day trying to figure out how to fix current sign regulation conflicts between the Sign and Zoning ordinances.
Originally, Councilman Bernie Gessner said, we had it all in a sign ordinance, and the thinking was we didn’t want people having to flip back and forth, so we’d put it all in one place; in the Zoning Ordinance.
But City Manager Brad Stafford said making changes in the Zoning Ordinance would be more difficult, due to public hearings, legal notice and the like. He them noted a problem one new owner out on Business Six is having just complying with a change in his company logo.
“A guy buys Best Western,” Stafford relates. “He’s got a pole sign that’s been there since they built Best Western. Best Western re-branded. The Zoning Ordinance says you can’t have a pole sign. He wants to change the whole sign out. He can’t do it. He’s got to remove the pole sign and he’s frustrated.”
And there’s a big difference in sign needs, Mayor Bert Miller said, for businesses on the highway and those downtown.
“There used to be,” Councilman Geoff Horn chimed-in. “Nowadays, people use their phone and they GPS themselves,” he argued. “And when they get there they just need to be able to identify which building is the Classic Rock Cafe. You don’t need signs from far-off. People just don’t use those anymore.”
No one else seemed to buy that one, with Miller adding that lots of folks come to the Classic Rock, because they saw the sign in an earlier drive down Washington.
No decision was reached, but Council instructed Stafford to convey their thoughts to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission before another workshop with P&Z is called. and when it is, we’ll let you know about it, right here on Navasota News.