Chairman suspends city sign committee, plans to draft revised ordinance

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Sign Committee Chairman Larry Green.

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, 10:30 p.m. (UPDATED Oct. 16, 2014 9 a.m.) — The committee reviewing Bardstown’s sign ordinance has ended its weekly meetings due largely to the absence of representation from the Joint City-County Planning Commission.

Chairman Larry Green met with four members of the 19-member committee Wednesday to discuss the sign ordinance review and address the main areas of concern — temporary signs and vehicle-mounted signs.

Green expressed his disappointment that none of the committee members from the planning commission were in attendance. Wednesday’s meeting had been moved from last week to this week, which resulted in schedule conflicts for a number of committee members.

“It doesn’t seem like its productive to have a sign ordinance committee without planning and zoning,” Green observed.

Rather than schedule more committee meetings, Green said he will take the input and suggestions the committee has received so far and draft a revised sign ordinance.

Steve Hatler, the city’s code enforcement officer, holds up a portion of the sign ordinance during Wednesday’s committee meeting.

A draft of a revised sign ordinance will still allow public input, he said. “The [sign ordinance] discussion will keep going, it will just take a different form.

“It may be where we get it in ordinance form with two or three options,” he said. That will give the community and the council an opportunity to evaluate and discuss the options.

He acknowledged that a committee member suggested he suspend the meetings until the new city council is in place. The suggestion also called for making the new council members of the committee, then letting the mayor and council to determine how they wish the committee to proceed.

Green said his decision to suspend future meetings wasn’t based on that recommendation as much as his recognition of the planning commission’s absence.

“I would prefer to do it with people from the community on the committee and the stakeholders in the sign ordinance,” he said. “If a significant group of people are choosing not to come, then we’ll just have to do it a different way.”

In an email sent the day after the committee meeting, Planning Commission Chairman Todd Johnson said Green shouldn’t blame the commission’s absence as a reason to discontinue or postpone the sign committee meetings.

“The sign ordinance is a city matter, not planning & zoning,” he wrote, adding that the revisions of the ordinance should be monitored or controlled by those who will enact it.

And because the responsibility for the ordinance lies with the city council, Johnson said Green should not have been appointed committee chairman after Councilman Tommy Reed resigned.   Johnson noted the suggested to delay work on the ordinance until after the election, adding that “if that is the ultimate outcome of yesterday’s meeting, we are fine with that.”

Councilman Bobby Simpson questioned the need to draft an ordinance at this time because the committee had yet to really spend time discussing the sign ordinance issues.

“I’ve been to all the meetings but one, and I haven’t heard any real discussion — I’ve heard lots of suggestions, but that’s it. Where does this committee stand?”

The committee can’t really act with planning and zoning, which advised they were not going to attend the meeting, Green said.

“I’m not sure we’re representative enough [of the community] to continue to go forward,” Green said. “We may need to wait until we can get planning and zoning involved. It’s part of their responsiblity and they’re not here.”

He noted that the main parts of the sign ordinance regarding the permanent building and pole-mounted signs aren’t a problem area and are not up for revision at this time.

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