ISA and Utah Sign Assn. Collaborate to Influence Sign Code

Roy City, UT recently had a sign code that completely disallowed pole signs and greatly curtailed electronic signs’ ability to provide their benefits. Now the city’s attitude has reversed itself from “We only want monument signs” to “Let’s make sure the EMC’s [electronic message centers] are big enough so the text can be read while driving down the street,” reports Vince Coley of Rainbow Sign, a member of the Utah Sign Assn.
How did this happen?
Sign-industry collaboration. Roy City was struggling with its sign code, so it contacted the Utah Sign Assn. (USA), reported Patti King, USA’s executive director. USA is an affiliate of the Intl. Sign Assn. (ISA), and, subsequently, James Carpentier, ISA’s manager of state and local government affairs, presented Roy City with several PowerPoint presentations that documented the power and benefits of appropriate signage.
Here’s the chronology of events from Patti:
Ginny Kirch, a planning commissioner from Roy City, contacted me on March 10 and said their city was considering banning pole signs in favor of monument signs. When I learned the community resides next to I-15, I warned her about the potential serious economic impact this could have on their community if freeway traffic couldn’t see their businesses. I mentioned another Utah city that had increased its freeway sign heights from 24 to 60 ft. to bring additional traffic into their town. I sent her several resources she could share with the commission and planning staff.
I also copied James to open the door to conversation between he and Roy City. Their planning director, Steve Parkinson, asked if I would make a presentation to the planning commission, city council and staff about the "good, bad and ugly of signs." I suggested inviting other nearby communities to the presentation. He agreed and invited peers from nearby communities.
James and I would make the presentation. I reached out to YESCO’s Jeff Young, who volunteered to help, as did Vince Coley. James and YESCO’s Mike Freeborg developed the presentations.
James presented a 25-slide PowerPoint presentation entitled “Legal Issues in Sign Regulation.” He also showed a 61-slide PowerPoint that discussed regulations that encourage great design, considerations when mandating monument signs, and other economic concerns. Finally, his 43-slide treatise called Signs 101 Workship gave an overview of the types of signs and their functions.
So what happened?
Jeff Young summated: “We concluded that we’ve never seen anything like that . . . ever. The city planners and city council took an absolute 180? reversal on their push for no more pole signs and restrictions on electronics and are now looking for ways to make their sign code much more flexible and supportive of business. If I hadn’t been there myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.”