Sandwich boards in the downtown Santa Maria area are safe from extinction—at least for another year.
On Aug. 17, the Santa Maria City Council voted 4-1, with Mayor Larry Lavagnino dissenting, to extend to 2011 the sunset clause on a ban against using portable advertising signs outside businesses in the city’s Downtown Specific Plan. The ban was supposed to go into effect on July 3, but public outcry led the council to reconsider.
The Downtown Specific Plan covers approximately 268 acres of land within the borders of Fesler, Miller, Morrison, and Pine streets. The use of sandwich signs is banned everywhere else in the city.
Business owners, however, told the council the ban would negatively impact their already struggling businesses.
Lavagnino seemed to take their message to heart, telling the Sun in a recent interview: “I was the one who wanted to extend the clause to two years and extend the area further out in the city so all the people who need the signs to survive in these hard economic times could have them.”
Lavagnino said he also wanted to regulate the size of the signs people could use.
The new ordinance banned the use of all feather or bow signs (large nylon banners) in the city and created a 60-day grace period for business owners to get rid of them after the ordinance is adopted.
Marvin Marlett, owner of Christian Designs Bible Bookstore on Main Street outside of the approved area, expressed dismay the signs won’t be allowed at all businesses.
“We start out the council meetings by saying the Pledge of Allegiance—‘with liberty and justice for all,’” he said. “I don’t think this was liberty and justice for all. I think they made a few people happy in the Downtown Specific Area and the rest of us can just go suck on a lemon.”
Since he relies heavily on tourism dollars, Marlett said that by being forced to remove his signs, he’s seen a “considerable drop” in retail sales.
“There are lots of things that would make this city look
better. A sandwich board is the least of the problems,” he said. “Address the major issues and let the economy go. Why take away people’s personal freedoms?”
For more information about the ordinance and the sunset clause, visit ci.santa-maria.ca.us.
This article appears in Aug 19-26, 2010.