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BUT SHOULD THEY BE ON THE SIDEWALK?
ince August, the Athens-Clarke County Community
Protection Division has issued at least 50 warnings
and two citations to businesses for placing sidewalk
signs outside. The signs impede the flow of foot traffic, offi
cials say, but some downtown business owners disagree.
Bar South has been putting a sign out six days a week
for the last two years, says general manager Amy
Summerford, but it wasn't a problem until the Georgia-
LSU football game Sept. 28, when a code enforcement
officer came by during happy hour and insisted her staff
move it to the porch. That was all right for a month???
until another official ordered the bar to move its sign
inside.
"I understand that the sidewalk is public property,
and I guess if they want to charge us for it, they can,"
Summerford says. "But I thought it was pretty crazy
when they wouldn't let us keep it on our own porch. We
pay a fee for our porch, so we should be able to keep it
there."
Ryan Myers, Amici Cafe's co-owner and general man
ager, says his business has used the same sign for three
years without any trouble.
"Our sidewalk sign is something that we feel gener
ates business for us," he says. "It brings people in,
which generates dollars for the business, which gener
ates tax dollars for the city, and so on and so on."
Now, though, it's got the restaurant at odds with the law.
"Our sign is not egregious," he says. "It sits flush against the
side of the building. It doesn't stick out as far as our sidewalk
cafe, our dining area. So it's not really in anybody's way."
The county's concerns about public safety may be mis
placed, according to Myers. "This doesn't impede any more the
flow of traffic than a light pole or a parking meter or a trash-
can or a newspaper box or a park bench or any of these things
that are already there," he says.
CPD Administrator John Spagna says that the crackdown on
sidewalk signs is part of a larger initiative to clean up down
town, and that the county has also been addressing garbage
and graffiti issues. "Signs in the public right of way are not
allowed, and we intend to continue to work with the busi
nesses to understand that," he says.
The ACC Commission passed the sign ordinance in 2005 over
concerns about safety and access for the disabled.
Some business owners are skeptical of the county's motives,
though. Jackson Street Books owner Tony Arnold, who installed
his neon window sign in 2008 after he was threatened with
fines, laments the lopsidedness of code enforcement.
"In my experience, most of the ordinances exist in order to
facilitate generating fine monies, whenever they are enforced,"
Arnold says. "Otherwise, the public health concerns of stale
beer and rotting food and rodents dripping into the storm
water collection system would've become a priority at some
point during the last guarter century."
Business owners also question the timing of the enforce
ment push. Summerford says she'd heard of sign permits before
but never felt the need to acquire one. In the past, Myers says,
the sign ordinance wasn't taken so seriously. "It seems
to be a thing that they rally around once a year... and
then we never heard from it again," he says.
With business owners speculating about football
season and the impending Clayton Street construc
tion as possible causes for ACC's sudden strictness,
Spagna says that "it's nothing deeper than the fact that
the fall brings a busier time to Athens, as well as to
downtown."
And the busiest time for downtown is after code
enforcement hours. "People know when the city's not
working," Myers says. "If you come out at 9 or 10 o'
clock at night when the bars are opening, all of them
have their signs out. And the streets are even more
crowded with people."
Amici and Bar South aren't planning to fight the city
over the issue. They, like other downtown businesses,
such as Magnolias and Juiced Up, have moved their
signs inside for now.
"We fully understand the reason behind it," Myers
says. "We're willing to cooperate, but this thing has to be a
level playing field across the board."
Myers would like ACC officials to rethink their priorities.
"You look at most of these signs that people put out,
they're not in the way," she says. "To us, it just seems like
busywork for somebody to do... Surely there should be other
problems in town to worry about."
Sarah Anne Perry
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