In your article about the Council’s decision to erect a sign for the Visitor Center, Arts Center, and Chamber of Commerce you failed to mention a significant fact. Since Sandy Kahn was the applicant Mr. Meggs was correct that the proposed sign was not exempt from the sign regulations because it was not being erected by the Town or some other government. However, when Town officials decided that it made sense to give direction to visitors looking for the Visitor Center and Chamber, it now became the Town government erecting the sign.
Signs erected by a government conveying public information and directing vehicular traffic, like the one at the I-77 off-ramp, are exempt from the sign regulations. Thus, the Council did not circumvent the appeal process to the courts which isn’t even relevant to a government-erected sign, and most definitely did not usurp the BZA and courts.
Gary Parker,
Blythewood Town Administrator
