By ALICIA LEONARD

In a four-to-one vote, the DeFuniak Springs City Council moved ahead with an amendment to the sign ordinance that has taken almost two years to design. The amendment, which was designed with the input of local business, proved to be controversial up to the final vote, from which Councilman Wayne Graham was the only dissenting voter. Graham said he was supportive of bringing the old ordinance back to the table for more tweaking and discussion, before bringing it back in front of the Council. The amendment does not prohibit or require any business to remove any sign and will only be applied to new business signage.
Art Dees, owner of radio station WZEP and chairman of the business committee that worked with the city, approached the Council over the signage matter and request a moratorium over the sign ordinance. “It has taken a long time to get to this point, but we ask you please to allow a little more time before this law is enacted and rescind the current law and give us a couple of more years for we as business and responsible citizens to get through this tough economic time.”
Greg Lathinghouse spoke to the Council about an issue he had with property where Genesis Automotive is located. Lathinghouse said the process was new to him and he was appreciative of City Planner Greg Scoville working with him, but the amendment still would not allow him a second sign along Shoemaker Drive for his back lot of on-site financed cars and the sign would help direct customers to the property that was two lots, but owned by the same business. Lathinghouse’s property fell short about 16 feet to be considered for another sign by the amendment. The Council suggested that he request a variance and Lathinghouse responded that he did not want to pay the $450 required for submitting a variance request, especially if the request was turned down.
Councilman James Huffman offered a compromise to the group. “I believe that if we go back now, who knows when we will get this back in front of us. It has taken two years to get here, now. I don’t believe there is any such thing as a perfect document in this case. It will always be not quite perfect for someone, therefore, I suggest we waive the variance application fee and allow existing businesses 90 days to come before the Council and tell us what they need to be able to work with this. If it’s too restrictive or they have some type of hardship that the ordinance will cause them, then I ask that we work with them, waive the fees associated with the variance and accept the plan we have before us.”
Councilmen James Coffield, Don Harrison and Henry Ennis agreed that they liked Huffman’s suggestion to waive variance fees. The Council also responded to what they called being antibusiness by an unnamed entity. Coffied said, “I have been hearing that we are against business and that’s not true. I said when all of this started that we are here to make things easier for businesses, not harder. Hearing that really gets my blood up.” Scoville also alluded in the cover-letter that he presented to the Council about the antibusiness rumor, “We, as public servants, have worked to engage our community in this process for the benefit of all and the betterment of the community, not to encourage divisiveness within our community as has been suggested by some.”
Ennis spoke up and said he did not agree the restriction on the numbers of flags a person may have on their property. Harrison read off a list of new businesses that have moved to the city in the last five years and said that there had been quite a bit of growth by new business that were not deterred by the old ordinances. Lathinghouse was asked if the waiving of the variance fee would help with his situation and he responded that it might, but there still might be issues.
Erin Bradshaw approached the Council and asked on behalf of the Walton County Citizens Political Action Committee to pass the amendment, “As a committee we support this. We have been struggling for years to get here.”
The variance waiver was approved unanimously and businesses have 90 days to request a variance. Once approved, the business owner is not under a time restriction to make a change or add additional signage if the variance is approved..
Some highlights of the amendment approved: simplified rules for C-1, C-2 and I districts, additional sign area for C-1 districts and multiple ground signs on larger lots. Restrictions for new business include a reduction of allowable new sign area in C-2 and I districts from 1,000 to 500 square feet maximum reductions in heights for off and on-premise new signage. For a complete list of the changes and of the ordinance itself, citizens and business owners can contact the DeFuniak Springs Planning Department and request a copy of the approved amendment.