City looks at temporary sign rules

The City of Shelton is considering changing its code on temporary signs, which now allow for a size of 16 square feet.

At the Shelton City Council meeting July 16, the council voted 5-1 to re-examine the city’s code on temporary signs. Sharon Schirman cast the dissenting vote. The motion will now go before a city committee, then be explored at a council study session before a public hearing and a council vote.

Council member George Blush introduced a motion to suspend the city’s code on temporary signs until Dec. 31.

“The reason I am bringing this motion up is I recently learned that our sign ordinance prohibits sponsorship banners for the companies who donate to our youth sports,” he said. “These have been a much-needed source of revenue that supports our kids living healthy lives. As the father of an athlete, I know how most of the programs are held together with a shoestring budget. I know how hard our student athletes work on the field and I do not want to be the reason they don’t have that opportunity.”

Blush continued, “After receiving numerous complaints from business owners, elected officials and private residents about this part of the ordinance, I believe it is what our community wants. Before the end of the year I would like to see a committee put together to find what our community members want. With that information in hand we can choose how to best move forward.”

Blush’s motion was seconded. The motion was later amended to change the date from Dec. 31 to as soon as the city can set up the committee, study session, public hearing and votes.

City Manager Mark Ziegler said the city’s ordinances on temporary signs include compliance with size, repair and replacement, with a maximum size of 16 square feet. Sept. 17 is probably the earliest date the proposal could be approved, Ziegler said.

“Any time you suspend any portion of our code, there’s ramifications, as I mentioned,” he said. “It opens up the size of any temporary sign, so this is for any lot in the city. It could be a 3,000-square-foot lot, which we have in our neighborhood residential zone, up to tens of acres within our commercial areas.”

In 2022, the council, city staff and the Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce made recommendations on signs to the city, Ziegler said.

“We addressed not only advertising for youth sports teams, advertising for garage sales, campaign signs, real estate signs and things like that, how to reduce clutter, how to maintain a look, a sense of community we might have, so staff administering something like this might be fairly difficult because we won’t have any ‘teeth’ in the administering of those code as far as size.”

Ziegler said he looked at the temporary sign codes in nearby towns. Chehalis allows temporary signs up to 8 square feet, 4 square feet in Port Orchard, 32 square feet in Aberdeen, he said.

“I don’t see anyone with unlimited size,” he said. “There’s always some size regulations in the seven cities I looked at in close proximity to us.”

Mayor Eric Onisko asked whether there is a way to address Blush’s concerns that don’t “open us up to 30-foot signs or billboards on Railroad.”

“The building code would address it at that point, if it’s over 6 feet in height,” Ziegler said.

In March, Blush’s proposal to increase the maximum allowable size of temporary signs, including political campaign signs, from 16 to 32 square feet failed to move beyond a council study session.

At that session, Onisko pointed out that the city spent almost three years working on the current sign ordinance before it was adopted in April 2022. The maximum size for temporary signs were increased from 10 to 16 feet, he said.

The proposal required four of the seven council votes to move forward to the business agenda of a council meeting. Blush, the only supporter, called the proposal “a small change we’re trying to make here.”