TRURO — After a controversy over election signs this spring resulted in multiple calls to the police dept., the town is still not enforcing its bylaw on temporary signs, according to Town Manager Darrin Tangeman. The planning board held a community forum on Aug. 7 to gauge public opinion on the signs, including whether they should be regulated and, if so, how.
“It takes a lot of work to bring a warrant article to town meeting, so our goal tonight is to listen to what members of this community have to say,” said planning board vice chair Anne Greenbaum at the start of the forum. Public feedback would help guide the board if it were to draft a bylaw revision for town meeting.
Only two members of the public showed up to share thoughts on the temporary signage issue, however.
Lisa Pinero said she likes signs because they are an avenue for spreading information.
“It’s one more way to reach people in Truro, where not everyone has internet access, not everyone is getting the Truro monthly newsletter or other forms of information,” Pinero said.
She also said that signs in town are typically well cared for: “It doesn’t look like litter.”
Nonetheless, Pinero was on the side of regulating them, including a rule that they pertain to Truro.
Gail Wickstrom advocated for more intense regulation of signs, pointing out that the Payomet Performing Arts Center’s signs often advertise performances in Provincetown. Wickstrom said that small businesses are “great,” but she didn’t like signs “promoting these large businesses” like Payomet.
“I’ll take any forum that I can to start speaking for South Highland Road,” Wickstrom said. “It is hell. The buses are hell. The traffic is hell.”
Wickstrom said that traffic is both “a safety concern” and “a quality-of-life concern.”
Greenbaum said she appreciates signs that guide her somewhere new, especially to fresh vegetable stands on “roads I might not have thought to go down.”
“Business and economic development are very important to the town,” said town planner and land use counsel Barbara Carboni. “There are a lot of business owners — and I think we should be thinking of that term broadly — who deserve support for the jobs that they provide year-round to residents. I would advocate for a robust consideration of how to help our businesses with visibility.”
After the event, Greenbaum told the Independent that “we got good input from two people. It would’ve been nice to get good input from 10 or 15 people.”
To Change a Bylaw
As the town’s sign code currently stands, the planning board can issue permits for temporary signs only for “holiday or special events.”
Signs for events lasting one or two days can be installed for a maximum of 15 days, and events lasting more than two days can have signage for up to 30 days.
There is a much wider range of temporary signs in town than that, however. In addition to the farm stand directions, there are graduation announcements, signs for local election candidates, and directions to fresh-caught lobsters.
Signs on public rights-of-way are regulated differently than those on private land, and the election-signs controversy this spring centered on the extent of public roadway margins. According to Tangeman, many people believed they had placed campaign signs in their own yards, next to their fences and their rose bushes.
The fences, rose bushes, and signs may have all been on public land, however, as the public right-of-way around roads is often wider than is commonly recognized.
Nonetheless, town administrators decided to stop enforcing the temporary sign bylaw after the police dept. received several complaints about DPW employees who were removing signs.
Greenbaum said that regardless of this controversy, temporary signs had actually been on the planning board’s agenda since last fall.
Permanent sign applications are currently handled by the town’s building commissioner, so one possibility is for temporary sign applications to be directed to him as well, said select board chair Sue Areson.
“If there’s going to be any regulation of temporary signs, it needs to be applied uniformly,” Areson said. “It can’t just be campaign signs, and it can’t just be fresh egg signs.” Any change to the temporary sign bylaw would need to be approved by town meeting voters.
Tangeman said he did not know of any other Truro bylaws that the town has decided not to enforce.
This is “a very sensitive issue,” Tangeman said. Town counsel had concurred with the decision not to enforce the bylaw while gathering community input, he added.
The planning board will discuss the issue again on Aug. 21 and will eventually work with the select board as well. In the meantime, Greenbaum encouraged those with opinions on temporary signage to contact the planning board.
Depending on what people say, according to Carboni, it might be possible to have a bylaw revision prepared in time for the next town meeting.
