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Minutes 11-02-00MINUTES OF THE CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP ON NON-CONFORMING SIGNS HELD IN CONFERENCE ROOM C, WEST WING, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, NOVEMBER 2, 2000 AT 6:00 P.M. Present Gerald Broening Mayor Ronald Weiland, Vice Mayor William Sherman, Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Black, Commissioner Charlie Fisher, Commissioner Dale Sugerman, Assistant City Manager Nicholas Igwe, Assistant City Attorney Mike Rump, Director of Planning & Zoning Lusia Galav, Senior Planner Scott Blasie, Code Compliance Admin. Call to Order Mayor Broening called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. Assistant City Manager Dale Sugerman presided in the absence of City Manager Kurt Bressner, who was out of town attending the quarterly Board Meeting of the Innovations Group. Background on Non-Conforming Signs Mr. Sugerman stated the purpose of the workshop was to review the issue of non-conforming signs. There is an Ordinance on the City books which mandates that certain types of non-conforming signs within certain areas of the City must be removed. The deadline for compliance was extended to December 31, 1999. To date, the City has not enforced the Ordinance. Prior to the December 31st deadline, the City Commission and the Planning & Development Board (P&D) reviewed the issue. As a result of that workshop, staff was asked to review, revise and make recommendations for an entire Code revision relating to signs. This has been ongoing since August 1999 when the City Commission and P&D Board reviewed the Code. Staff is now prepared to make recommendations and modifications to the current sign Code. In order to keep the two issues separate, staff would like to keep the issue of removal of non-conforming signs apart and distinct from the modifications to the sign Code. Therefore, tonight's workshop will focus upon the non-conforming sign deadline of December 31, 1999. After that, discussion on the overall revisions to the sign Code could be discussed. Recommendations Mr. Mike Rumpf stated that staff has reported on three occasions to the City Manager on this subject and has investigated the issue thoroughly. Mr. Rumpf had copies of staff's prior reports available. From these studies, staff came up with some criteria to address the signs that are most inconsistent with the Meeting Minutes City Commission Workshop Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 regulations. An inventory was performed and it was determined that there are approximately 30 to 35 signs that match the criteria. When the December 31, 1999 deadline arrived, because the Planning Department and the City were in transition, it was not a priority item. Staff actually did not start to communicate with the owners of the non-conforming signs until after January 1 st of this year. Staff is prepared to move forward on whatever the Commission determines. The options are as follows: Enforce the current Code as it is written. This could include a courtesy notification with a deadline followed by citations from the Code Compliance Department. Another option would be to enforce the mandate and provide some type of funding assistance. If this option were selected, further details would be necessary. The Code itself could be modified to remove the non-conforming mandate and make all the signs legally non-conforming. They would have to come into compliance when the properties are redeveloped or improved to a major degree. Consideration could be given to declaring a moratorium and postpone everything until the Commission decides where it wants to go on this. Mr. Rumpf presented some pictures of the City corridors showing some of the non-conforming signs. Commissioner Fisher noted there are some non-conforming signs that don't interfere with other businesses and some signs totally block other businesses. Commissioner Fisher did not think that everybody could be grandfathered in because some businesses could be hurt. Commissioner Fisher inquired how many signs are non-conforming and Mr. Blasie stated there were 30. Commissioner Fisher inquired if a sign could be grandfathered provided neighbors on either side do not have an issue from a business point of view? Attorney Igwe responded that you cannot choose and pick which signs to grandfather thereby creating a problem of differential treatment. Everybody must be treated the same way. Commissioner Fisher suggested putting some kind of appeal process in place. Commissioner Fisher noted that the owner of Mobil- Tech said another sign was blocking her business. Mr. Blasie stated there is no appeal process in the Code for non-conforming signs. Ms. Galav stated there are four criteria for granting a sign variance, but if they are prohibited signs they cannot receive a variance. Ms. Galav stated that hardship is the main criteria for granting a variance. 2 Meeting Minutes City Commission Workshop Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 Commissioner Black inquired if the City had Economic Development funds available to assist these business owners. Mr. Sugerman stated there is no specific line item to offer grants. However, if the Commission would like to start a program, staff could try to identify a funding source. Vice Mayor Weiland inquired how would this affect those businesses that have already complied, if the City were to offer funds to those business that have not complied? Mr. Sugerman said that he did not know of any businesses that actually complied under the December 31st deadline. All signs that have gone up since August of 1999 have met the existing Code. Vice Mayor Weiland did not think it was fair that new signs going up had to conform to Code, when existing signs do not. Mayor Broening stated this meeting was addressing non-conforming signs and these are two different issues. Mayor Broening also felt that the possibility existed that the City could give some financial incentives to these business owners to meet compliance. Mayor Broening would like the City to move forward on this, as there are other more important issues that the City needs to address. Mr. Sugerman stated that staff discussed allowing businesses three more years for compliance. If they came into compliance within the next compliance date, the City would contribute 50% of the cost up to a certain maximum. If they complied within two years, the City could contribute 25% and if they complied within the three years they would receive 10%. Commissioner Fisher noted that these businesses knew that they had five years to get a conforming sign and Mr. Sugerman said that it was done this way to allow the businessperson five years to depreciate the value of the sign or five years to accumulate money to replace the sign. Mr. Paul Raffa, 1810 South Federal Highway, Boynton Beach stated that he was not sure if his sign was non-conforming because he did not know how to measure the height of the sign. He was under the impression that there were a lot of different interpretations on whether a sign was or was not conforming. Also, Mr. Raffa thought from the last workshop that the signs were going to be grandfathered in. Mr. Raffa noted that many, many businesses on Federal Highway have closed up and there are not as many signs left and the signs should be left to natural attrition. Mr. Raffa said he cannot put any kind of sign at his North Congress Avenue restaurant. Mr. Dom Desiderio, owner of Atrium Place, stated he has a sign, which is non- conforming by two feet in height and it would cost him $5,000 to take two feet off 3 Meeting Minutes City Commission Workshop Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 the top. Also, this would take major construction and a new sign could cost around $10,000, from which he would realize no additional monies. Commissioner Fisher inquired about businesses being blocked by non- conforming signage and someone suggested that the signage could be staggered. Mayor Broening asked if there are any businesses that are in fact blocked by a non-conforming sign? Commissioner Fisher said the only one he knew of was the Goodyear sign blocking Mobil-Tech. Mr. Doug Besdecker, the Manager of the Goodyear Store, asked how his sign blocked the MobiI-Tech sign? Mr. Besdecker said his sign is twice as tall as their sign and requested that Commissioner Fisher come out to the property to determine this. Mr. Besdecker stated in fact if his sign was lowered to meet Code, it would block MobiI-Tech's sign even more. Mayor Broening didn't really see any benefit to the City by enforcing compliance. Mr. Sugerman said a few Commissions ago, this compliance issue was brought up as an aesthetic issue. Mr. Sugerman said that there are some non-conforming signs that are extremely non-conforming. Vice Mayor Weiland asked Mr. Raffa by how much his sign was out of conformance and Mr. Raffa was not certain. Mr. Blasie stated with regard to McDonald's the height is in excess of 28'; the arches were measured from edge to edge; and this was determined by measuring the total area of the sign. Also, the sign is closer than 10' to the property line, but Mr. Blasie did not have the exact measurement. Mr. Rumpf stated that because of the height and total area of the sign, the setback would not be an issue. Commissioner Black said he could see no benefit to the aesthetic value at the corner of Woolbright and Federal Highway by moving a sign 2' and dropping it down 2'. He felt this made no sense. Commissioner Black could see no point to having all signs look alike. Further, Commissioner Black felt there was no logical reason to make a business move a sign two to three feet. Mr. Sugerman stated when the City is trying to "clean up a corridor visually", it is staff's responsibility to determine what meets conformance and what doesn't meet conformance. It is up to the Commission to determine whether or not it makes practical sense. Commissioner Black would like to grandfather in all the non-conforming signs. Vice Mayor Weiland asked about the businesses that have conformed and would they be compensated for changing their signs. Mr. Sugerman said he did not know of any business in the Federal Highway Corridor that was forced to comply. Mr. Rumpf pointed out with regard to the MobiI-Tech sign, the owner had a shared sign with another tenant in the building and wanted a stand-alone sign. 4 Meeting Minutes City Commission Workshop Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 The owner came in for a permit and the sign had to comPly with the current regulations. Mayor Broening felt it made no sense to make an issue over an existing sign that doesn't meet the current criteria. However, he wants to make sure that the Code is enforced for all new businesses. He would like the City to provide incentives to the businesses to change their non-conforming signs. He would like to see the signs grandfathered and that the City move on to more important issues. Commissioner Black requested that Mr. Blasie furnish a list to the Commissioners of the non-conforming signs and the reasons why they are not in compliance. Commissioner Black would like the item placed on the November 21St Agenda in order for the Commission to address the issue once and for all. Commissioner Black would like to make a motion at the meeting that all non- conforming signs be grandfathered. Commissioner Fisher would like the Board to have some type of means to address any non-conforming signs that are way out of sync. Attorney Igwe stated that you could put some standards in place, that would require modification to the existing Ordinance and would require public hearings. Conclusion v' Mayor Broening would like to review the list of non-conforming signs and the reasons why they are nonconforming. ¢' Mayor Broening requested that the item be placed on the November 21st Agenda entitled "Enforcement of Non-Conforming Signs". v' No legislation would be drafted. v' Mr. Sugerman pointed out that there are 30 nonconforming signs that are illegal and the City has to take code action against them. v' Commissioner Black would like to make a motion at the November 21st Commission meeting to remove those 30 signs from the books as being illegal. v' Attorney Igwe will research if this could be accomplished by Resolution or Ordinance. v' Mr. Sugerman asked if the Commissioners would like to see the revisions to the entire Code and Commissioner Black requested they be furnished before the end of this year. 5 Meeting Minutes City Commission Workshop Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 2, 2000 Adjournment There being no further business the meeting properly adjourned at 7:00 p.m. ATTEST: Recording Secretary (one tape) Vice Mayor Cohm~'sioner Commissioner 6