Council to look at signs on Elk Avenue

Make finding the Creekside Business District easier

Signs continue to be a regular topic for the Crested Butte Town Council. Are dry-erase boards the same as chalkboard signs? Will the town allow businesses not on Elk Avenue to have directional signs placed on the town’s main business thoroughfare?
The council will have staff look at these issues and bring the topic back to the council sometime next month.

Crested Butte Mountain Guides owner Jayson Simons-Jones asked the council to relook at the sign ordinance prohibiting directional signs on Elk Avenue. His business is located behind the post office along with three other establishments. He was ready to place a sign, with the consent of the post office, by the bench at the southeast end of the parking lot. But the town said no.
“We are hidden off Elk and it would help to have some exposure on Elk Avenue,” Simons-Jones told the council at the July 18 council meeting. “We would like you to explore the idea of helping businesses off of Elk. Do we want to be known as the town of Crested Butte or the town of Elk Avenue?”
Simons-Jones pointed out other resort communities have figured out tasteful ways for offsite directional signage. He also said he would be satisfied if a generic sign stating something to the effect of “Creekside Business District” with an arrow would help.
“There are Elk Avenue signs for some businesses located a lot farther from Elk than my business,” he said. “I had five clients come in the last few weeks and tell me how hard it was to find my building.”
Town building official Bob Gillie said the staff was ready to work with a council subcommittee last October to look at the issue, but nothing came of it.
“If you want to follow that thread, we can do it,” he said. “It is probably a six-week process just to change the sign ordinance.”
The council thought it should look once more at the request, so councilpersons John Wirsing and Dan Escalante will gather with the staff to look at options and come back to the council with a recommendation.
In the meantime, the staff is cracking down on businesses pushing the limits of the chalkboard sign allowance. Many businesses are apparently using dry-erase boards instead of chalkboards—the council wants to see fewer Sharpies and more chalk.