Taneytown residents -- and a representative of the outdoor advertising industry -- will discuss proposed restrictions on business signs at a public hearing tonight.

Drafted by a citizens committee, the proposed regulations would allow downtown merchants to display overhanging or flat wall signs and also would open sidewalks to sandwich board signs, not allowed under the existing ordinance. The proposed regulations, however, would reduce the square footage of signs.

The committee has proposed height and lighting restrictions for signs in commercial and industrial areas outside the downtown business district.

The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at city offices, 17 E. Baltimore St.

Advertising signs are an aesthetic issue for Mayor W. Robert Flickinger.

"You've got to control it," he said. Having "signs all over town looks junky."

Taneytown's lone billboard would be allowed to remain under the new regulations. But future billboards would be banned inside city limits.

City Manager Charles "Chip" Boyles reported one inquiry from a representative of the outdoor advertising industry, who planned to attend the hearing despite the absence of any direct impact on the existing billboard.

"The display of signs should be adequate but not excessive. [Business-use signs should] avoid excessive competition and clutter among sign displays in their demand for public attention," the committee wrote in an introduction to the proposed sign regulations.

The proposed regulations would replace an existing ordinance that has been criticized for its vagueness.

If the City Council adopts the regulations, business owners would have five years to change their signs to conform.

Pub Date: 8/05/98