All signs are pointing to a solution on the horizon regarding a situation whereby a local body shop owner has been barred from using an existing sign for a $2 million expansion of his business in Mount Airy.
This involves a proposed amendment to city zoning regulations, which if approved would set new distance boundaries allowing Frank Fleming to re-face the large sign left behind by the Winn-Dixie supermarket when vacating a site on Merita Street years ago.
Fleming has been denied from utilizing the framework of the former grocery store sign due to updated rules implemented in 2016.
These limit a sign’s height to 15 feet in cases of new business developments such as his, where the existing one is taller — and which Fleming says is needed to draw attention to the new body shop location tucked away off U.S. 52-North.
Construction recently has been occurring at the site where the owner plans to double his staff of about 10 employees at the present shop on Springs Road. He bought the property on Merita Street in a rundown state that is anticipated to be greatly improved through the expansion.
The local businessman, backed by a crowd of supporters, attended the last meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners on June 16 seeking an amendment to the regulations which would permit the sign use.
After hearing spirited pleas for that, city officials announced that the matter would be discussed at their next meeting scheduled today at 6 p.m.
Since the June meeting, an amendment has been devised by city planners to address what are described as non-conforming freestanding signs existing in highway corridors, mirroring the situation involving Fleming.
The added language says such signs that are set back a minimum of 300 feet and no more than 600 feet from U.S. 52-Bypass, U.S. 601 and Interstate 74 rights of way shall be exempt from other sign rules in the city ordinance.
Those pertain to one or more non-conforming signs located on a parcel of land or building whose occupancy or use has been discontinued for two consecutive years, among other provisions. Such signs are to be removed, replaced or otherwise brought into compliance with present standards.
Cawley reacts
The Mount Airy Planning Board, an advisory group to the commissioners, voted 4-2 in favor of the proposed amendment’s approval on June 27 and now the ball is in their court.
“All we’re going to do Thursday is set a public hearing,” Commissioner Jon Cawley said Tuesday regarding the fact that citizens must be allowed a chance to comment before such an ordinance change occurs. It is scheduled during another meeting of the city board on Aug. 18 at 6 p.m.
Cawley has been highly vocal in his support for Fleming’s sign request and is satisfied the amendment will solve the impasse that has included the businessman appealing the case to Surry County Superior Court.
The North Ward commissioner and 2022 mayoral candidate said he went to the Merita Street site where the expansion is underway and took a measurement with a golfing device to ensure the new language pertained to Fleming’s property.
“When I went out and shot this, I used a golf rangefinder and it was 504 feet from the edge of (U.S.) 52,” Cawley said. That device magnifies a target and shoots a laser beam at it in order to determine a precise distance.
“I didn’t know how we were going to go about it,” Cawley said of providing relief to Fleming which he and other municipal officials expressed support for during the June 16 meeting. “I thought was going to be a variance.”
A variance can be granted to a property owner when his or her planned use of a site deviates from local zoning laws.
Cawley applauded the proposed amendment as a pro-business move.
“We always need to be helping our business owners,” he said, who are often in the best position to know what’s best.
“If he thinks he needs the sign, then he needs the sign.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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