Time to review sign ordinance

Three years ago, in 2012, new electronic signs seemed to appear every day on Route 1, eventually prompting Sussex County Council to revise an ordinance regulating on-premise electronic signs.

At the time, various council members raised concerns, among them that bright, moving signs would distract drivers in the commercial corridor of Route 1.

A sign manufacturer who testified at the hearing assured council the signs use photo cells whose light is no brighter than light from a porch light.

That idea made no sense to Councilman Sam Wilson, who shot back, “You are trying to get me to look; that’s why the sign is there. To me that’s a distraction.”

The same expert also told council a 2007 study found electronic signs had no effect on traffic safety; a later study by the U.S. Highway Administration was for years mired in controversy.

In the end, electronic signs were allowed with some restrictions, as a special-use exception. Anyone who hoped the revised ordinance would slow the rise in the number of signs was quickly disappointed.

Since it was adopted, there’s been an explosion of electronic signs in the Route 1 corridor – some obviously brighter than any porch light.

Unfortunately, the ordinance does not specifically limit brightness except to say the light should not cause glare or impair the vision of any resident or the driver of any vehicle – language that on the face of it would eliminate most of the signs. Yet they continue to shine in the eyes of Route 1 drivers.

The ordinance also limits how fast the messages on the signs can change but it doesn’t specifically address how that applies to video images that change constantly.

It’s time for Sussex County Council to take a new look at both on-premise signs and off-premise billboards, which are rising higher than ever.

Signs are big business, but the public has a right to safeguard public space. Unless council adopts reasonable, enforceable restrictions, on-premise and off-premise signs will pollute the landscape we all share with messages we can’t avoid.