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County Turns Out Lights On Electronic Signs
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Published: December 5, 2007
New Port Richey, FL - New Port Richey, FL - Have you seen the LED lights? Pasco business owners won't after county commissioners on Tuesday rejected allowing signs which flash electronic messages that change frequently.
The commissioners split 3-2 over the issue. Commissioners Michael Cox and Jack Mariano, who wanted to allow the LED electronic signs with restrictions for gas station price signs and other uses, were on the losing side of the vote.
The divisive issue inspired passionate comments.
Pasco's advisory group, Citizens Ordinance Review Committee, would allow the LED message signs.
County staff adamantly opposed allowing such signs, Assistant County Attorney Kristi Wooden reported.
"I'm just telling you that we're going down a slippery slope" to allow LED signs, Commissioner Pat Mulieri said. "I do not support this, I strongly do not support this."
Commission Chairman Ted Schrader sided with Mulieri. He was unwilling to reopen the Pandora's box of changes to sign regulations which have been discussed and cussed many times before.
Cox observed that the electronic message signs already have popped up at some new schools and a handful of gasoline stations in Land O' Lakes and Holiday.
"I just think it's going into the 21st century," Cox commented. He would restrict changing the electronic message to perhaps once a day, rather than once a minute as the CORC advisers had recommended.
Electronic signs would offer another, unintended benefit against tampering, Cox said. He recently saw an old-style sign which uses plastic letters at a church where vandals had tampered with the letters to create an offensive message.
"If we're going to be small business friendly," Mariano added in favor of electronic signs, "what's the harm?"
Cox pointed out that Mulieri avails herself of some of the latest technology by using a Blackberry mobile device for phone calls and e-mail messages.
Mulieri persisted in her opposition. Nobody has called her about wanting this change, she noted.
"You're going to change the face of Pasco," she said. LED electronic signs would be "a step backward" for the county.
"It just junks the place up," Schrader concluded.
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