published: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Avon Park changes sign of the times

By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY

christopher.tuffley@newssun.com

AVON PARK - Monday night City Manager Julian Deleon asked the city council for direction regarding the new signage code he and city staff are developing for the city.

The issue, Deleon said, is visibility for local businesses, especially for those situated along high volume, high speed roads. He asked the council to provide flexibility regarding elevated signs on roadways where traffic is designed to travel faster than 40 miles per hour.

"Our current code does not allow the 'smaller' commercial establishments to have elevated signs," he said. "They allow elevated signs for only warehouses and shopping centers."

He said only monument signs are permitted for smaller businesses, but the code restricts the size to seven feet in height, including the pedestal, and the sign body cannot be bigger than 72 square feet. This makes them impossible to read when driving above 50 mph, Deleon said. Elevated signs, on the other hand, have higher visibility.

The new code is to help businesses get attention along busy, fast streets like U.S. 27 and State Road 64. They are not being proposed for Main Street or Lake Avenue, Deleon emphasized.

The code has restrictions. An elevated sign cannot be more than 20 feet high, and the body of the sign cannot have a gross surface area larger than 150 square feet.

No matter the size of the business, or type of signage, only one sign is allowed per property - including shopping centers.

Council members expressed interest in the proposed change, but because the code is still being developed, no decisions were made.