Meredith sets to vote on electronic signs

On Tuesday voters will go to the polls in a special Town Meeting to cast their ballots on a proposal by Planning Board to amend the zoning ordinance that would forbid all electronic signs throughout the town.

The proposal enjoys the unanimous support of the Planning Board and the Greater Meredith Program and was roundly endorsed by residents who spoke at a public hearing in May.

Although the current zoning ordinance prohibits "signs which are animated, flashing or with intermittent illumination," it includes an exception for electronic signs displaying time and temperature and a loophole for electronic signs displaying messages in text. In light of a recent court decision, the exception for time and temperature signs renders the ordinance unenforceable while messages shown electronically slip through the loophole.

The proposed amendment would eliminate the exception and close the loophole. The ordinance would be rewritten to read "signs which are animated, flashing or with intermittent illumination, and Electronic Signs, are prohibited." At the same time, the definition of electronic sign would be expanded to include all manner of technologies as well as signs displaying text to read "a sign, or portion of a sign, that displays an electronic image or video, or uses changing lights to form a message in text form. This definition includes signs using technologies such as, but not limited to, television screens, plasma screens, digital screens, flat screens, LED screens, video boards, holograph displays, liquid crystal display signs and fiber optic signs."

The definition would exclude signs intended to ensure public safety or traffic control as well as reader boards, or signs displaying copy that can be removed and replaced by hand.

This spring the Planning Board was moved to seek a special Town Meeting by the outcome of litigation over the electronic sign ordinance in Concord together with the erection of an electronic sign displaying a message in text at Meredith Village Savings Bank. Concerned that electronic signs would proliferate before next March when Town Meeting could change the zoning ordinance to forestall them, the board asked the Selectmen to call the special Town Meeting.

In 2006, the Merrimack County Superior Court struck down a Concord ordinance, which like Meredith's ordinance, was intended to prohibit electronic signs, but exempted time and temperature signs. The court ruled that the ordinance unlawfully regulated the content of commercial speech by permitting time and temperature signs but prohibiting all others. Although the city appealed the decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, it also revised its ordinance to prohibit all electronic signs, regardless of their content.

Naser Jewelers challenged the revised ordinance in United States District Court where it was upheld. Judge Steven McAuliffe ruled that although signs represents speech protected by the First Amendment, the city may regulate signage for "legitimate governmental purposes," as long as it neither unduly infringes protected constitutional rights nor promotes or hinders any particular viewpoint or message. Since the prohibition on all electronic signs was intended to improve traffic safety and enhance aesthetic values, without regulating the content of of signage, McAuliffe held that it passed constitutional muster.

The litigation demonstrated that the Meredith ordinance, which mirrors the original Concord ordinance, could not be enforced, but that an outright ban on all electronic signs would withstand a legal challenge. At the public hearing on the proposed change to the ordinance in May Herb Vadney, chairman of the Planning Board, said "if we want to prohibit flashing intermittent animated signs we have to act quickly. To be honest all manner of such signs could appear in town between now and next March if we do not take action to block them now."

About the same time, the electronic sign appeared at Meredith Village Savings Bank and the Code Enforcement Officer Bill Edney received applications for two others. Vadney said that a number of residents wrote and called members of the Planning Board and Selectboard as well as the town offices to say that they found electronic signs, including the sign at the bank, at odds with the character and appearance of the town.

At its meeting on May 8 the Planning Board drafted the revised ordinance and scheduled a public hearing for May 29. Meanwhile, on May 21 the Board of Selectmen agreed to hold the special Town Meeting.

At the public hearing the proposal won near unanimous support. Even Annie Paquette of Paquette Signs, who erected the sign at the bank, said "I'm, kind of caught between both things here. I've got my craft. I've got my customers and I've got whether I want to be a hero or bad guy in the Town." Only Phil McGowan spoke unequivocally against the proposal, saying "let's not tie the hands of the small business owner."

John Edgar, Director of Community Development, emphasized that a prohibition on electronic signage was consistent with the principles and objectives of the Community Plan, adopted by Town Meeting in 2002, as well as the Architectural Design Review Ordinance, enacted at the same time. Moreover, he noted that the town petitioned the state to designate Route 3 and Route 106 as part of a Scenic Byway Route around Lake Winnipesaukee.

The proposal also enjoys strong support for the Greater Meredith Program, whose directors, a majority of them business owners, unanimously have unanimously endorsed it. Speaking at the public hearing, Rusty McLear, chairman of the program, said that "we believe Meredith is doing as well as it is doing . . . because it's different. People come her because it doesn't look like a lot of other places and we all believe that we should strive to make sure that we keep that advantage." McLear added that the Mill Falls Association, representing more than a dozen businesses, also backed the proposal.

Architect Chris Williams, chairman of the program's design committee, described electronic signs as "distractions" that threaten the effort to foster a "calming and comfortable" ambience in the town. He said that the proposed changes reaffirmed the intent of current ordinance.

Although officially a special Town Meeting, there will be no deliberative session on Tuesday. By law, zoning changes must be vote on by secret ballot. The polls will be open at the Community Center on Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.