A $25,500 sanfu: Sign blitz breaks town’s ordinance
By Frank Ruggiero

As the Five Man Electrical Band once put it, “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign; blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind...”

No minds were broken, though some were confounded, and scenery — particularly that of a major Boone intersection — was certainly blocked this past Fourth of July weekend.

Eighty-five advertisement signs were illegally placed on roadsides of the town’s major corridors, promoting sales at the Izod, Geoffrey Beene, Van Heusen and Bass stores at the Tanger Shoppes on the Parkway in Blowing Rock.

Christy Marsh, planner with the Boone Development Services Department, said she received a call early Saturday morning, informing her of a flagrant violation of the town’s sign ordinance.

“We counted about 85 signs within our jurisdiction, and that doesn’t include the area between our jurisdiction and Blowing Rock,” Marsh said. “They put them up really early Saturday morning.”

The signs were neon green in color, and Marsh estimated their dimensions at 3.5 to 4 square feet.

Marsh immediately called one of the stores advertised on the signs, and was informed each store belonged to a four-store parent company, Phillips-Van Heusen.

“I told them they had 24 hours to get the signs down, and they didn’t do that — they didn’t take any of them down,” Marsh said. However, Marsh has reason to believe the signs were removed late Monday, as when she went to work around 7:30 the following Tuesday, they were all gone.

“I immediately called Tracy Brown, who’s the manager of the Tanger Shoppes on the Parkway, and evidently, they had the same problem,” Marsh said.

Brown, himself, was surprised to find 35 of the exact same signs posted in the Tanger Shoppes area, which his staff promptly removed.

“We learned about it when we came to work on Saturday morning and saw 35 signs in our parking lot,” Brown said, adding Tanger Shoppes on the Parkway does not allow any solicitation on the property. “We took them out of the ground and threw them in the garbage.”

Brown promptly called the managers of the four mentioned stores, and learned that none had any idea of campaign, leading Brown to believe it was set up at a corporate or regional level.

Brown gave Marsh the contact information of Phillips-Van Heusen’s Raleigh office, which she said was allegedly responsible for hiring an advertising promotion company, Frontline Media Solutions of Orlando, Fla., to promote the sales.

Marsh contacted the Phillips-Van Heusen regional office in Raleigh, and informed the district manager that the town had issued a notice of penalty for violating the sign ordinance, which amounts to $100 per sign per day.

Since the signs were posted for three days, the penalty now sits at a sizable $25,500, a penalty Marsh described as “the biggest sign penalty and violation we’ve ever had.”

As of presstime, representatives from the Phillips-Van Heusen regional office in Raleigh have refused to comment, not returning inquiring calls.

Though Marsh said Phillips-Van Heusen informed her that Frontline gave them a verbal indemnity clause, saying Phillips-Van Heusen would not be responsible for any potential violation. However, the town is required to issue notice of violation to the apparent abuser, Marsh said.

“Anybody I do this for, I take full responsibility for these signs,” said Gregory Bondzeit, president of Frontline Media Solutions.

James Wieck, chief operations officer and vice president of Frontline, said he received the notice Thursday morning.

“We’re looking into all of this, and we are coordinating with the Phillips-Van Heusen legal division to look further into this, and that’s all I can really say right now.”

Bondzeit said such situations are “always able to be taken to court and talked about.”

According to Article 18 of the town’s Unified Development Ordinance, off-premise advertising is not permitted.

“Generally, you can’t place any signs at all, temporary or permanent, within a right-of-way of any road at all,” said John Spear, director of Boone Development Services. “And off-premise advertising is not permitted, though businesses are allowed to have temporary signs. For example, if you’re new to a location, you can have grand opening signs, but you’re typically limited to one sign on your premise. They cannot be placed off-premise.”?

Spear said it’s fairly common in any jurisdiction to have a sign ordinance relative to advertising, stating that such advertising must be contained at the place of business.

Once a notice of violation is sent out assessing the penalties, Spear continued, the penalty must be paid within 10 days of receipt of the violation. If it’s not paid within 10 days, the town would seek enforcement through the courts. Marsh said $25,500 notice must be paid by July 18.

“This is certainly the most egregious violation of placing off-premise temporary signs,” Spear said. “I don’t know of any one company that’s ever done a campaign to this degree.”

Nan Chase, chair of the Boone Community Appearance Commission, is pleased with the town’s swift reaction.

“We’re real pleased the town has got these laws with some teeth in them, and that they’re able to respond so quickly and in such a serious manner, because it was a serious abuse,” she said.

Spear mentioned that information regarding the sign ordinance is available at the town’s Web site at www.townofboone.net.

“Anybody at all that is interested in doing any type of advertising can certainly call our office and check beforehand to ensure that whatever advertising they do falls within the town’s sign ordinance,” he said.

•Frank Ruggiero can be contacted at ruggiero@wataugademocrat.com