Stephens Co. Commission Working to Amend Sign Ordinance

The Stephens County Board of Commissioners is moving forward with making amendments to the sign ordinance.

County Administrator Phyllis Ayers said that some of the most significant changes to the ordinance involve billboards being separate from other signs and prohibiting billboards in certain areas.

“One of the most significant things is it pulls out ordinance for billboards separated from all other signs, and so it gives a square footage of 300 square feet for billboards and 75 square feet for all other signs,” said Ayers. “And on page nine, one of the most significant things is that no billboard will be permitted to be constructed on Currahee Parkway and another change is the reduction of the required setback for the sign that I removed 10 foot.”

Commissioner Debbie Whitlock said that she supports the preservation of Currahee Parkway against billboards, but has concerns about the ordinance for the rest of the county.

“I’m all for the Gateway Corridor being preserved and no billboards on that corridor and keeping that nice and pristine coming in and going out of our community,” said Whitlock. “However, I do have more concern about the sign ordinance throughout the whole county, because like I said I do approve basically that there will be no signs, especially billboards on the Gateway Corridor which is the new 17, Currahee Parkway. They had a beautiful sign and it’s going to look really nice, however, I really don’t see the need for the sign ordinance throughout the whole county when we have laws that protect that.”

According to Ayers, under these amendments, existing signs are grandfathered in.

The first public hearing on these amendments will be during the commission’s next meeting on August 22.