July 5, 2009

Charlottesville leaders are ready to reverse a controversial sign ordinance they put into effect. One that had many downtown mall businesses up in arms.

Stores located on the side streets of the Downtown Mall paid for way-finding signs on Mall lampposts so they could advertise their stores there. But one day, one store employee says she found those signs in the trash with no explanation from the City. Now, Charlottesville officials are providing sandwich boards as a replacement.

The vintage clothing store Antics is off the beaten path. It's located on 5th Street Southeast, just off the Mall.

"We do get some tourists that only found us a couple years ago by fluke because they turned down the wrong street," says Nova Fleming, an employee at Antics.

Employees and store owners were shocked when the way-finding sings on lampposts, directing mall-goers to side street stores, disappeared during the re-bricking construction without warning.

"We felt we were really not given an equal say or basically an equal standing with the other vendors in the mall who don't actually need the signs," says Fleming.

A letter dated June 29th from zoning officials to side street businesses like Antics explains the plan to bring back the sandwich board signs on every intersection as a replacement for the way-finding signs. The ordinance change will officially happen Monday, July 6th.

City officials say the way-finding signs were an ADA liability, posing a danger to blind pedestrians. But Fleming says they didn't hear that explanation until after the signs were taken down.

"If they'd given us a reason why and enough time ahead of time, we probably would have come up with a different solution," says Fleming.

Several other side street stores including Salad Creations and the Cat House complained to the City of Charlottesville about the ordinance.

Now that City Council is expected to reverse the ordinance at Monday's City Council Meeting, stores like Antics are looking forward to attracting more customers.

The design of the sandwich board signs is not finished, however. On July 14th, Charlottesville officials will finalize the design for the new permanent sandwich boards on the Downtown Mall with input from side street store owners. They're expected to be on the Downtown Mall by the end of July.