RFL businesses in signage war with Larimer County

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

In the time-honored tradition of capitalism, the way to get business customers through the door is to advertise.

Sometimes the most efficient way is to erect signs--usually large enough for a passing car to notice. The Larimer County Department of Planning thinks otherwise, however; the Land Use Code, section 10.6.E, specifically prohibits billboards and off-premises signs.

According to Chad Gray, one of two code compliance officers hired by the county in late 2005, off-premises signs have not been allowed in the county since 1972, and the issue was formally codified in 1989.

Gray, who covers the northern part of the county, said in late fall 2006 he noticed a new large sign near the top of McNey Hill along County Road 74E, the Red Feather Lakes Road, for a quarry in Loveland. He said he told the business involved that the sign was an off-premises code violation, and it was taken down.

"In the interest of fairness and consistency," he said, "all the commercial signs along 74E not complying with code were cited and the affected businesses and property owners received letters, some requiring that the signs be removed from off-premises locations."

According to Wendy Dionigi, code compliance officer for the southern part of the county, sign code violations are usually cited after someone files a written complaint, either online or by letter, with the planning department. "We don't go out looking for problems, normally," she said, "because we don't have enough staff."

Recently, however, the county commissioners decided to be more proactive with regard to off-premises sign violations.

Dr. Janice Weixelman, owner of the Red Feather Medical Clinic, said she put a sign along the road to inform people about her clinic in 2003. She used a signboard that was already in place for a business that was no longer operating and obtained permission from the property owner. At that time, she said, she pointed out to the county that the information might be invaluable to someone having a medical emergency in the Red Feather Lakes area, saving a 60-mile drive back to Fort Collins.

She asked the county engineering department to place a small sign in Red Feather Lakes, like the TOD (tourist-oriented directional) sign Wellington put in within two weeks of her request to alert people about her Wellington clinic. Weixelman said the county promised to get back to her, but she has heard nothing since she made the request more than three years ago.

Then in November 2006, Weixelman said she found a hand-written note on the clinic door informing her the sign along CR 74E was not in compliance. It was signed by Chad Gray of the county planning department.

Other businesses and churches in the area were informed by letters from the county that their signs had to come down. Morning Star Church and the Shambhala Center removed signs not located on their own property, as did the Pot Belly Restaurant, an auto repair shop and Beaver Meadows Resort, among others, according to Gray.

Tony Kosmicki, owner of the High County Restaurant, claimed his signs were removed and in one case destroyed. As a result, he said, he lost money through December when many visitors come to Red Feather Lakes during the Forest Service Christmas tree-cutting season.

"We're not located along the main road, and visitors just don't realize there's a restaurant back here unless we have some way to tell them," Kosmicki said.

Martina Wilkinson of the engineering department said the county is working on that. Her office is creating a standardized framework for TOD signs, adapted from the existing Colorado Department of Transportation regulations for state highways. She said the county expects to have something in place before the summer tourist season, which will benefit unincorporated areas served only by a county road, like Red Feather Lakes.

She said her office expects to have a draft proposal for the signs ready early this year, followed by a period for public comment, before going back to the county commissioners for approval in early spring. She noted the CDOT program is cost neutral and contracted out, meaning the cost is borne by the businesses for name-specific signs.

Wilkinson explained that some criteria for TOD signs would have to be amended for county use. For example, CDOT stipulates that to qualify for a sign on a state highway, 50 percent of a business's income must come from outside the community, and there are requirements for the number of hours of operation.

"For a county program," she said, "that is unrealistic, but we can make the criteria whatever we want it to be, as long as it is approved and standardized."

Wilkinson will attend two meetings in Red Feather Lakes this month with information on directional signs. She will be at the planning advisory committee meeting on Feb. 8, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., held at the Property Owners Association building, and at Commissioner Kathay Rennels' citizen meeting on Feb. 21, 8:30 to 10 a.m., at the library.

When this county program is adopted, Wilkinson said, Larimer will be the first county in Colorado to have such a program for signage in the public right-of-way. Typically, she said, the TOD signs are blue with white lettering, not to be confused with the brown signs for public entities like libraries and post offices. TOD signs are for services like restaurants, gas stations, lodging, camping, recreation, religious and other commercial facilities, although CDOT also uses them to point out historical points, scientific sites and natural phenomena.

Gray acknowledged that Red Feather Lakes is a unique situation because almost all of the services in the village are not visible from the county highway. He said probably the best solution would be to create a vehicle pull-off on private property along the county road for a centralized tourist information point where an attractive display sign could list all the community's services and facilities.