Sign Pollution Complaints On The Rise

The election of 2022 may well be reopening a wound no one wished to see reopened. However citizens have been posting their distaste for sign pollution since the start of the 2022 election cycle and the volume has been rising on their dissatisfaction.

The original discussions were brought up by then Council Chairman Grifoni in late 2016 shortly after his election in November of that year after he had read an article about a Supreme Court decision regarding signs in a law journal.

That began a long and protracted dive into the issue of signs that would see members of the planning board and council consume countless hours of their time and taxpayers resources.

That ruling held that any regulation of signage must be “content neutral,” and the rule applies to all types of signage. The focus instead must be on time, place and manner, as relates to signage.

Kathryn Mehaffey of the firm Weiss-Serota, who served as part of the city’s legal firm, led the board through a detailed conversation regarding a draft ordinance her office had created for input and discussion as the board would move through its review.

Size, height, setback, illumination, separation, location and display method may all be defined by the governing body, as well as form/sign type.

During the drawn-out debate on this issue one of the longest exchanges related to the placement of signage into the right of way as is the present custom at this time. The recommendation from Mehaffey at this time is to eliminate the placement of signs there. Her rationale was based upon the “all or none” rule which would require any and all signs to be placed there, with no options left for the community. She would end up warning both the city’s planning board and council, “this is going to be a very difficult area to address,” said Mehaffey.

Both the Planning Board and Council would ignore her recommendations and signage would be allowed in the “Right of Way,” as it had been previously but with the provision that they could be set out at 7:00 AM and removed by 6:00 PM.

In June of this year Council Chair Brechnitz would attempt to approach the subject once again of “sign pollution.” He would once again point out that the City of Naples does not allow signs in their Rights of Way, and it doesn’t appear to affect their lives. “We have a small staff and can’t be chasing these things,” said Brechnitz. His efforts once again failed.

Signage continues to increase as the election grows close. It's unclear whether winning candidates will broach the subject matter after the election is behind us.