Montclair Town Council will vote tonight on a controversial proposed ordinance to eliminate contractors’ signs on lawns in residential areas of town. (Signage will still be allowed in areas zoned commercial.)
The ban has been debated vociferously on the Montclair Watercooler and opposed by NJ.com’s official Montclair blogger, Chris Castellani.
One opponent is Martin Schwartz, an old-house restoration specialist and co-owner of Textured Home, whose signs are abundant in Montclair. Schwartz has suggested to town manager Joe Hartnett and members of the town council that they consider instead a scheme that would allow renovators to post signs in exchange for a fee of between $250 and $500 a year.
In an e-mail to deputy mayor Joyce Michaelson, copied to the rest of the council, Schwartz complained that the proposed ordinance is discriminatory because it allows signs for one class of commercial interests (realtors), while prohibiting it for contractors.
Although agreeing that “there is a problem with excessive signage,” Schwartz said in his letter to Michaelson, “the distinction you contemplate will not hold up in court.”
The council’s public session starts at 8. A public hearing and second reading of the ordinance will be followed by a vote.
Sign Ordinance Vote Tonight
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I still think it’s very obnoxious for towns to disallow people from hanging garage/yard sale signs (though I understand why, and that many people don’t clean them up) by saying “no advertising off of your own property” but then they allow realtors to put signs and balloons all over a neighborhood, on the slice of land in front of other people’s houses when those property owners have nothing to do with the sale of another house. It’s kind of a joke.
I hope this passes, although I regret it does not include realtor signs.
[cue chirping birds] … in a place called perfect, there are no general contractor signs, no painting company signs, and no ‘kitchens by turano’ signs. in fact, there is no evidence that any of the perfect houses inhabited by perfect people need anything done to make them even more perfect than they already are. in a place called perfect, the old inns are torn down to make way for new, more perfect houses. in a place called perfect, free sushi flows freely into the mouths of perfect babes, and no child is only ‘average.’ in a place called perfect, someone else parks your volvo. but we don’t live in perfect, or do we? oy vey…