By MONROE ROARK
mroark@thecitizennews.com

Signs on Fayetteville businesses now have slightly clearer regulations after last week's passage by the City Council of amendments to the sign ordinance.

The main area addressed is the matter of what can be posted outside a business, according to Chief Planner Todd Miller.

Businesses are now allowed 5 percent of the building facade for signage facing the road, or 7.5 percent if the building is on a double-frontage lot, Miller said. The ordinance previously had varying stipulations based on how far the building stood from the right-of-way, and now the guidelines are the same for all.

This helps because some business owners can easily become confused as to just exactly where the right-of-way is, Miller said. This was one of the areas where problems were first noticed in the Main Street sign ordinance, and continued study led to changes for businesses all over the city.

Practically all outdoor signage already required special permission from the city, even on a temporary basis. Banners advertising special sales are now permitted twice a year, Miller said.

During recent City Council discussions on the amendments, a concern that continued to surface was what could happen if a business changed ownership. One business owner in particular was concerned because he has a variance on a ground sign, and he did not know if he could sell the business without the next owner being in violation.

Miller said that a sign variance is not like a setback variance or some other policy pertaining directly to the land, in that it cannot be passed from one owner to the next.

Some signs erected before 1991 can be nonconforming, since they were grandfathered when the original ordinance was passed. They are fine as they are, but owners of these signs cannot make certain changes to them without bringing them into compliance, Miller said.