The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Enforcement is always an issue”
Sandwich board signs will soon be allowed in Mt. Crested Butte and the Crested Butte Mountain Resort base area on a year-round basis. The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council considered an ordinance on Tuesday, April 7, that would allow businesses up to two sandwich board signs, provided that the signs meet certain criteria.
Under the new regulations, businesses may have one sandwich board sign per access point or door, and no more than two per establishment.
The signs must have stained, wooden frames and may not have whiteboards.
Chalkboards will be allowed so that businesses can list information that changes on a regular basis, like daily specials, but these signs may not be duplicated within ten feet of the business.
In addition, sandwich board signs will be allowed only during business hours.
The council suspended previous regulations in February based on the recommendation of the town’s Planning Commission. Previously, sandwich board signs were permitted only during the off-season, defined as April 30 through November 14, and those old regulations were not being enforced.
“We don’t really like to think of our summers as off-season anymore, and originally when [the sandwich board signs] were disallowed in winter it was because the transit center was a lot more congested than it is now,” community development coordinator Todd Carroll explained to the council.
The council was supportive of the new ordinance, but councilmember Todd Barnes asked what kind of penalty there would be for leaving a sign out after business hours or not adhering to other new regulations. “Is there any enforcement if somebody leaves it out overnight or it doesn’t look the way it is supposed to?”
“That’s a good question,” said Carroll, “Enforcement is always an issue.”
Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick felt that the key to enforcement was good communication and follow-through at the very beginning.
“We’ll get this in place and at the beginning of the summer season, we’ll go out and inspect what’s out there and tell people how it’s suppose to be. We’ll watch it in the beginning. If we set it straight in the beginning people will know this is the code, and you follow the code,” he said.
Councilmember Danny D’Aquila pointed out that the town has the ability to pick up signs that are left out overnight, saying, “If we pick [the signs] up, I don’t think it should be as simple as giving them back. People get upset because [the signs are] not cheap and they need to understand we’ll be watching them.”
“I think that can be spelled out [that] this is the result if we see it out at night,” said Barnes. “We’re going to come snag it. If we do that without establishing it out front, then someone is going to call us on it.”
“Which we can do through the permit process,” said mayor Dave Clayton.
And that’s where it stands. The council approved the first reading of the ordinance, which will also allow banners on a year-round basis for special events. They will see the ordinance one last time on May 5. Enforcement will be spelled out during the permitting process. Once approved, the ordinance will take five days to be official, at which point permit applications will be available on the town of Mt. Crested Butte website.
