By Bob Burns | Fountain Hills Times
During a sometimes heated debate at its Oct. 17 meeting the Fountain Hills Town Council voted 4-3 to approve amended sign regulations for the Zoning Ordinance.
The changes have been under discussion since the beginning of the year when the newly elected council voted to repeal, also 4-3, changes made in 2021.
The focus of the changes was temporary sign use including A-frame and T-frame, post and board (real estate) and yard signs for garage sales or similar residential uses.
The three council members who opposed the changes, Mayor Ginny Dickey, Vice Mayor Sharron Grzybowski and Councilwoman Peggy McMahon, voiced their support for the regulations approved in 2021.
“The previously approved sign ordinance – a unanimous vote that included four of us currently serving – had been in place since 2021 until it was illegally repealed in January by a majority of the new council,” Dickey said in a statement to The Times Independent. “It was an effective law that has worked out fine, allowing businesses, realtors and yard sale residents to place their temporary signs on weekends, but keeping the clutter and antagonistic, divisive signage at bay most of the time.”
Councilman Gerry Friedel said he believes the new rules are a good effort.
“It will take some education,” Friedel said. “Most of the time signs go out when businesses are ready to engage with customers. I believe the majority of the business owners will respect the law.”
Friedel was joined by council members Brenda Kalivianakis, Allen Skillicorn and Hannah Toth in voting to approve the changes.
The new ordinance allows for temporary signs seven days a week from sunrise to sunset. Previously yard signs were limited to weekends and holidays.
“Staff was tasked with checking that all temporary signs in the ROW’s (right of way) were removed on Sunday evenings,” Dickey said. “Now they need to check every night, seven days a week.”
Several speakers for the public hearing on the ordinance indicated opposition to the changes and cited support for the existing rules.
One speaker, Suzanne Brown with the Scottsdale Association of Realtors, said her group supports the new rules.
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