In a rare turn of events, Riverside trustees tied two separate votes on the same ordinance at their April 18 village board meeting, requiring Village President Douglas Pollock to vote to break both ties. The topic of discussion?
Feather signs.
The two votes were the culmination of nine months’ worth of discussions about whether the village should permit businesses to use feather signs as a form of advertisement.
Riverside defines feather signs as any temporary signs “constructed of a single vertical pole” with an “attached pennant that is vertically elongated” that is “designed to, or which actually does, wave or move in the wind.” These either take the form of freestanding, vertical flags in front of businesses or wall-mounted flags on storefronts.
At the board meeting, trustees were presented with the ordinance, which would have allowed some businesses to display one feather sign each for up to 30 days each calendar year, about one day every two weeks on average. Village Planner Anne Cyran noted that the planning and zoning commission, which had approved the 30-day limit in January, recommended allowing the signs to be displayed for up to 90 days annually instead.
Trustee Alex Gallegos moved to pass the ordinance with the 90-day limit, and Trustee Elizabeth Kos seconded the motion. When it came time to vote, the board was split. Trustee Megan Claucherty voted “aye” alongside Gallegos and Kos, while Trustees Cristin Evans, Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga and Jill Mateo voted “no.” In the first tiebreaker, Pollock voted “no,” striking down the possibility of a 90-day feather sign limit.
Trustees voted along the same lines immediately afterward on the version with the 30-day limit. This time, Pollock voted “aye,” passing it and bringing feather signs to Riverside.
Why were trustees so split?
The use of feather signs in Riverside went in front of the village board four times in the past nine months, not including two meetings this year when the ordinance was brought before the board but tabled due to trustee absences, likely because of how split the board was on the subject.
At the April 18 board meeting, Marsh-Ozga and Mateo explained their disapproval of the use of feather signs in Riverside.
“I’m still opposed to a widespread program like this allowing feather flags [at] this many potential sites,” Marsh-Ozga said. “The aesthetics of the situation is not something that our residents are going to be pleased with once they see it in action. I think, administratively, it creates a burden on our staff to have to keep track of these different properties and the timings, and I think we’re opening a door because we cannot regulate the content and the appearance or design of these new, less expensive forms of advertising, and I would oppose it whether it was 90 days or 60 days or 30 days.”
Marsh-Ozga said she would have been in favor of allowing the signs only at the Riverside train station, where bike repair shop Gears 2 You used them last year, sparking trustees’ awareness of the signs when the item was first brought before them in July.
“I appreciate the work that you’ve done and the commissions [have done],” Mateo said, addressing Cyran. “Nine months ago, I said that our sign code was very carefully thought out and revised within the last 12 years, I believe, and we don’t allow moving signs. In the nine months since, I haven’t seen any compelling reason to start allowing them.”
While none of the trustees who supported the ordinance spoke up about their reasons at that meeting, some expressed opinions at past board meetings.
“I would like to try this for the year of 2024, and let’s see how the summer of ’24 pans out,” Gallegos said at a meeting in December. “I know everyone’s fear is that everyone’s gonna jump out and buy these flags, but we’re unique here.”
“I’m in support of following the PZC’s recommendations. I think it is sufficiently tailored to our interests. I’m troubled a little bit by the concept of narrowly tailoring it so much that it only allows one space, and that’s a space that happens to be controlled by the village and from which the village derives rental income,” Claucherty said then. “The optics of that don’t seem great to me, vis-à-vis our other businesses.”
At that meeting, Evans said why she opposed the signs.
“I prefer the permanent signage that would come with a blade sign, that would look similar to what we have along Quincy [Street],” she said. “I think that looks nice and classy.”
What’s in the ordinance?
The new ordinance changes the village’s sign code that strictly regulates which businesses can use these new signs and how the signs can look.
The signs are permitted at businesses in the B1 and B2 zoning districts, which are mostly composed of areas downtown and along Harlem Avenue. The signs can be used only at businesses that obtain permits from the village; to do so, owners must submit their proposed signs’ appearances and tell the village which days of the year their businesses will put the signs out. Each business can only use one feather sign.
Any business that puts up a feather sign must keep it on the premises and out of the roadway. If there is no room on the premises for a sign, a business is not permitted to use one. Multi-tenant buildings can have one sign per 30 feet of storefront, so businesses in the same building won’t have to share signs.
Wall-mounted feather signs can be up to 15 square feet in size, but no side of the sign can exceed five feet. These signs cannot extend horizontally more than 42 inches in front of the building or vertically above the cornice or second-story window line, whichever is lower.
Freestanding feather signs can be up to 18 square feet and up to 10 feet tall, and they must be mounted on a moveable anchor base.
None may present danger to the public and or obstruct the view or path of anyone using the public way. The signs must be removed when a business is closed or during inclement weather.
