Journal Editorial: Heaven, have mercy on the ‘signage police’

There are times when local government must carefully weigh competing interests, enforce ordinances and ensure rules are applied fairly. Then there are times when common sense should prevail.

The ongoing saga surrounding ReChurch’s request for permanent signage at its location in the Sunshine Foods/Lewis Drug strip mall has become a textbook example of bureaucracy getting in the way of practicality.

For more than a year, ReChurch has occupied its space in the shopping center. Every week, volunteers haul out a portable sign to alert motorists that pedestrians are crossing the parking lot to attend services. This should not be a permanent solution. But it’s the only solution for now as they await approval to install exterior signage.

Month after month, the issue has appeared on the Brandon Planning & Zoning Commission’s agenda, only to remain unresolved. Meanwhile, church members continue dragging a portable sign in and out each week.

What’s particularly head-scratching is that the space has had exterior signage before. Alliance Communications occupied the location for years and had a sign that was significantly larger. Later, 605 Bins was allowed signage. Neither situation appeared to create a public nuisance, traffic hazard or aesthetic catastrophe.

Yet ReChurch remains stuck in zoning purgatory.

The obstacle is the city’s formula for allotted square footage of signage. Previous signs were grandfathered in under older regulations. ReChurch, however, is forced to adhere to today’s standards.

That’s all well and good if the goal is consistency. But consistency without reason often becomes absurdity.

When a building has historically displayed exterior signs, when neighboring businesses have signs, when the applicant has demonstrated patience for more than a year, and when the request itself is hardly controversial, at some point the question becomes: What problem are we actually trying to solve?

No one is asking for a flashing billboard visible from outer space. No one is requesting a towering digital display that will distract drivers on Splitrock Boulevard. They’re asking for a sign identifying the church that occupies the space.

That’s it.

City ordinances serve an important purpose. But these ordinances should be tools to help communities function – not barriers that prevent reasonable outcomes. When the process becomes so cumbersome that a church can’t secure approval for a modest exterior sign after five months of discussion, perhaps these rules are too complicated.

Brandon prides itself on being welcoming, business-friendly and community-oriented. Those values should extend to organizations like ReChurch that are trying to establish roots and serve local residents.

It’s time to approve the sign and move on.

Because if it takes this much effort to put a name on the side of a building, perhaps the real thing in need of revision isn’t the sign application – it’s the rulebook.