Tuesday, February 01, 2000
Newport to change sign rules
Businesses could put them over sidewalk
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — Businesses along Monmouth Street and throughout the central business district will soon have the opportunity to advertise their wares on signs projecting from the buildings over the sidewalk.
City commissioners Monday night approved an ordinance, on first reading, to create a new signage classification and amend other sections of the planning and zoning codes to permit projecting signs.
For businesses such as Peter Garrett's gunsmith shop and Mary Curtis' specialty store on Monmouth Street, it means being able to better display the products and/or services for passing motorists as well as pedestrians.
“I don't know exactly what I'll do, but I may want to put out a projecting sign along with my awning,” said Ms. Curtis, who specializes in custom-made costumes and sports clothing. “I've had a sign flush against the front of the building for years, and I wasn't permitted to have any kind of writing on my awning.”
Mr. Garrett said the rustic-appearing sign now anchored against the front of the building would serve his purposes much better projecting out over the sidewalk above his door.
“I hope this (sign change) is approved before the city begins to tear up the sidewalks this summer,” he said. “I've always felt it was a mistake to deny businesses the right to use projecting signs.”
City Commissioner Jerry Peluso, who owns a small grocery on Monmouth Street with his mother, said he was pleased with the move to permit projecting signs.
“I see how good the (projecting) signs look in Covington's Main Strasse area, and I hope we can do the same there here,” he said. “But we definitely need guidelines. We want everything to look the same and look good.”
Newport's Main Street coordinator, Eric Avner, told commissioners the city administration hopes the addition to the signage code “serves as an incentive to businesses to replace some old signs that are not really suited to a historic district.”
The city will file an application with the Newport Planning and Zoning Commission to review the issue and approve the necessary additions and amendments for projecting signs. The issue will then come back to the city commission for final approval, probably in March.
Mr. Avner said the addition of a projecting sign classification wouldn't give businesses the leeway to fill the front of a building with signs.
“There will still be a limit as to the amount of signage and size of signs a business can have,” he said. “That is based on the frontage of the building.”
Commissioners also supported a proposal by the Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau for an increase in the hotel tax in Northern Kentucky to help finance an addition to the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.
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