||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS |||
San Juan County reminds businesses and event organizers of important ordinances regarding signage – particularly signs placed alongside the road in the County right-of-way. During the week of Monday, August 14, 2023, county staff will be removing A-frame signs located within the public right-of-way in Eastsound.
According to San Juan County Code, off-premises, outdoor commercial signs shall not be permitted (18.40.370). Directional signs shall be permitted solely to provide direction to geographical places (e.g., West Sound, Roche Harbor, Richardson) and contain only the place name, an arrow, and mileage. Such signs may only be placed at critical intersections and, shall be no larger than 4×24 inches (18.40.380).
Excessive signage placed in the right-of-way can be distracting to drivers, dangerous to pedestrians and bicyclists, and impeding to road and shoulder maintenance and upkeep. The County asks those with signs to remove them from the public right-of-way by Monday, August 14, 2023.
Currently, the only A-frame signs allowed in the right-of-way are Special Event signs and they are relegated to the three areas in Eastsound illustrated below. This includes the intersection of Main Street and Lovers Lane, and only allowed on the west side of Lovers Lane; at the intersection of School Road and Prune Alley; and at the south side of the intersection of Terrill Beach Road and Crescent Beach Drive. No more than one sign per organization is allowed and must be removed after 30 days.
Once the signs are removed, their owners will be able to pick them up the following week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the Public Works facility building located at 1395 Mt. Baker Rd.,
About San Juan County’s Department of Community Development
San Juan County’s Department of Community Development is responsible for building permits and inspections, code enforcement, land use designations, long range planning, and more. The department’s main office is located at 135 Rhone Street, Friday Harbor, WA 98250. For more information about San Juan County’s Department of Community Development, visit www.sanjuanco.com/1778/Community-Development.
WE the people did not get to vote on the sign ordinance or any other ordinance made by county officials. How do we repeal the sign ordinance, the peddler’s ordinance, and the noise ordinance? The county is so worried about the ‘appearances’ of these signs, yet they allow all kinds of building ugliness that doesn’t conform to any aesthetics at all. Laughable – and it pisses me off that they come after this puny crapola and turn the other cheek over illegal b & b’s and architectural monstrosities. Many of the sandwich boards are downright pretty and charming. The tourists probably LIKE them. So who are the power people who get ordinances passed that shut down the celebrations and color of the working class community?.
Seriously, I know no one from the County will read or respond to this. But how and why do we have no say in these ordinances if these are ELECTED officials? People are calling the police in town at 6 pm over a birthday or grad party or wedding reception – it’s as if they can’t even stand celebration or levity – which is part of life. Too much is too much. Working people have the right to celebrate and make hand lettered signs. This in NO way impedes brick and mortar businesses… the clientele is different – and those businesses who are off the street need the sandwich boards. Is anyone else sick of these ordinances or is it just me? Shall we then hire town criers to walk around wearing sandwich boards for businesses or events? So just WHERE can we have sandwich boards? Is “the stump” still for the People, or the elite? How about the Tank? If the rules are only for some, then they are moot.
The process for Citizen’s to initiate legislation is explained in the handbook found at the link below.
“In November, 2005, the electorate of San Juan County adopted the charter form of government. This change gave the registered voters in the county the power to propose initiatives and referenda.
An initiative is a proposal put forth by the citizenry for specific legislation to be added to existing law. It is called an initiative because it allows the electorate to initiate legislation. An initiative proposal may be adopted by the County Council or submitted to the people for a vote. A mini-initiative proposal requests the County Council to hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance and adopt or reject the ordinance.
The referendum allows citizens, through the petition process, to refer acts of the County Council to the people before they become law. The referendum also permits the County Council to refer proposed legislation to the voters for approval or rejection.
The initiative and referendum process gives voters the right to legislate. Sponsors of initiative or referendum measures must, however, obtain a substantial number of petition signatures from registered voters in order to propose their measures to the ballot or to the County Council.”
https://www.sanjuanco.com/DocumentCenter/View/25095/Initiative-and-Referenda-Handbook-2022a
Thanks so much for this information and the link, @Vince Dauciunas. I will download the booklet and study it. From what I think you said, this is all to either make new law (initiative) or have a voice before something becomes law (referendum). But what happens after something is already law – as in ordinances? For instance, some of us talked about how it would be great if the noise ordinance was modified – at least in the UGA where the existing venues are – so that on Friday and Saturday night it could be midnight, not 10 pm? There could be weddings, dances, live music at the tavern… things like that. Our reasoning is because that is when most parties and celebrations take place – and people should have the right to dance and celebrate LIFE. Even if it did get shot down, at least it would be by the voters and not just a few councilpersons and upset people. Let the whole island community have voice.
So… if, through initiative, you could add to a law, could you also change a law? If you wanted to change, rather than add, to an ordinance or law, would you have to repeal it – then make a new one? That seems slow, and arduous. Statewide, I’m thinking a LOT about Tim Eyman initiatives, specifically, starting with I-696. If you wanted to, say, go back to graduated tabs but with much lower top end rates, how would you effect that? I’m trying to understand how much voice and influence we really have. How would you repeal bad or unfair laws, and make better ones?
I think I looked into this once before, and felt that we really had no recourse to get rid of bad laws. I hope I am wrong. To charge ridiculously high fines for a peddler’s ordinance, and give a hand slap to people doing illegal B & B’s and clearcutting and grade changing without permits, does not sit well with me at all, when the county brings down the hammer on sandwich board signs! Signs are the way people have voice. Election signs are up for months and months, yet an attractively painted sign must go?
It took decades to convince the county, always out of money it seems, and bemoaning it, to finally decide to fine land-use violators, especially repeat violators. The County went for maximum of $1,000 – such a pittance. Why a maximum at all for repeaters? Why not higher fines for each time that person is caught violating? Why not cumulative fines for every day they are out of compliance, since they think it’s such a joke and they are exempt from any kind of consequences and can just threaten to sue the County? Profiteers just laugh and continue to violate – “ask forgiveness, not permission” – because what’s a small fine like that to them? A drop in the bucket, when they are lawyers and “investors,’ or can hire their services. IMO, there are a LOT of ordinances that could use a makeover or repeal.
Some may think this is a rant… maybe it is. Some may think it’s is off topic to this little article about A-frame signs, but I think it’s not off topic at all This topic brings up all that is wrong with these kinds of ordinances compared with the bigger problems we face that the county does little to nothing about, leaving loopholes for more violations to happen that affect affordable housing availability for the workers here, and are driving islanders away due to lack of affordability.
So if i grow flowers and want to sell them at my apartment complex, the county can take away my flower sign even on private property where I live – or slap me a fine for ‘peddling’ what I grew?
I hope people see the absurdity of these ridiculous ordinances. We’re not automatons, we’re individuals – colorful, alive, resourceful, creative. It’s why this is such a special place. As more people grow their food or have chickens, they do us all a service by offering eggs for sale, or vegetables. There is enough for everybody! It can be win win – not draconian authoritarianism.
Meanwhile, we in the UGA – many working class people and families are saddled with not only exorbitant rents and mortgages, but also bear the brunt of paying for all the utilities of “town” living – water, sewer, all-electric homes (heat, hot water, cooking) – the price of utilities and hookups alone is staggering.
With Peddlers Ordinance, it’s a $250 fine for first ‘offense ‘ of trying to make ends meet creatively in this high rent district, and $500 for 2nd offense – (which can happen in the same day if we don’t leave the site) -all for trying to sell some handmade trinkets for a little extra because for some, three jobs aren’t making ends meet…! Or whatever. This is HALF of what the maximum fine is for some unprincipled jerk destroying a forest or wetland. Does this make sense at all? Things are so far out of balance and weighted toward the monied people who can sue the county or buy their way out, or force ordinances like these on the rest of us.. This is why this issue is such a sore spot for me. And… with the sign ordinance, they keep your signs and sometimes destroy them – that really hurts at today’s prices for plywood!
The ladies at Elections Dept. are great… I need to call them and I know they will try to help me understand all this in terms of what we can do.
This article got my dander up. These priorities by the County seem very strange and twisted; hostile, even – when there are so much bigger fish to fry. Sure would love to meet some like minded people and try out this initiative/referendum process in time for next year’s election. Too late for this year. Find me if you’re interested in seeing if we can effect anything democratic.
The proliferation of business signs has gotten way out of hand, especially at the Country Corner, and at one business in Eastsound that has 29 signs!. It’s not fair for those businesses who choose to follow the law. BTW, the county does not destroy those signs, the owners can pick them up at the road department.
Wow Sadie. Anti full on tourism, pro waffle board. No cars in eastsound, but must have what the drivers read……lots of different directions here. Vote. Vote. Vote. Buy. Buy. Buy.
@Dan Christopherson, I may know the business of which you speak; there’s ONE business in town that is so obnoxious and in your face – and I feel nauseated and disgusted every time I have to go by it (and they don’t even tend the weed patch outside of there or TRY to make it look decent – it’s all about the hard-sell ugly advert signs). So is your main concern business signs?
What about my other questions? What about all the little mom and pop things – yard sales, for instance? And events? How do they compete with town businesses? Why are they included in this ordinance? Surely, it can’t be “aesthetics!” Just look at the monstrosities being built in and around town!
What denotes a “business” sign? By whose standards and who gains from shutting down every single attempt by people already financially bludgeoned by living in the highest real estate prices per square foot – the UGA ? The middle class and poor who pay for all the infrastructure – water, sewer, all electric apartments. It falls on their backs. They ought to be able to put a sign out for a Farm stand or flower stand, dammit. I believe that people must pay to get their signs back and after a time, they are destroyed. I sure could use the plywood! Please correct me if i am wrong.
A one-time event like a catered dinner or a wine tasting, estate sale, dances, celebration of birthdays or weddings or even funerals -upcoming events, talks, poetry readings, open mics, yard sales, musical happenings, art openings, fundraisers etc – should be exempt from removal by the county IMO. The signs used to be our wonderfully rural way of informing us of events. Many of us LIKED them and the creativity that went into them, or just the downright funkiness of them. Is funkiness now illegal – is it too classless for our gentrified town?
It’s not OK for the county to include those in their sign ordinance, IMO. If i could add to the sign ordinance via initiative process, I would add exemption for the kinds of signs I just listed, and more. The absolute UGLIEST signs of all are those plastic cheesy block-lettered photo superimposed computer-generated things with no artistry at all; – cheap and tacky. Talk about classless! I’d prefer to see a badly hand-painted sign any day. Bless the people at Boede’s corner for their satiric humor! I chuckle each time i see those signs. Thankfully, they’re not in the UGA and the signs are attached to the gazebo – AND on private property.
Just look at Eastsound! Do you see any “rural character” left in the new buildings within the last 5 years? Weren’t these signs PART of our rural character? But oh, I forgot – we have a FORTY unit per-acre density in downtown commercial Eastsound; Seattle city densities. We’re “urban” now, so we must waste state and federal funds to become ‘sophisticated.’ So… if we’re really ‘urban,’ where are the street murals and graffitti and really cool arty garbage cans decorated by local artists? I’d like to see those kinds of creativity, and some pay for the artists – since we get blamed for making places too ‘quaint’ and attract the profiteering vultures who pimp it out. Many of us would probably do community art for free – and have. I know I have!
As for “aesthetics” – Who determines what’s OK and what is ugly, building-wise? When I look at those black Darth Vader- looking buildings cropping up and sucking all the life and color out of our village, or the concrete monstrosity on horseshoe hwy that happens to be YET ANOTHER realty office, (which could do with some tasteful mosaic or even paneling over those ugly concrete pillars – and how did they get away with being the tallest building in town?) I feel nauseous and repulsed. I don’t feel all warm and fuzzy that they give a rat’s behind about whether they fit in to the “character|” of our UGA – because our UGA HAS no “character.” We don’t save or remodel our older buildings – we raze them and the trees around them, and build something new – and occasionally – not ugly – but usually ugly (BTW, kudos to whoever tried to save what trees they could on School Rd and Prune Alley, even though the house is gone. They did a careful job so far, and I look forward to seeing what happens there because I think it may be tasteful and fitting for our town’s character).
Eastsound is looking more and more disjointed and haphazard each time a new uglification is built. And the county is concerned about sandwich boards?
You’re right, Dan – it’s all unfair to the businesses who have tried to follow the law; and I’m sure some of those businesses pushed for the ordinance that is now the law. But what if the law itself is flawed and unclear and overly punitive to the rest of us – as my examples above show? We’re both saying sorta the same thing; only I think some signs should be exempt from what the county has the right do with them – and I love thinking about the potential of changing or modifying that ordinance in initiative form, and getting it on the ballot for the people to decide.
Building-wise, I’m all over some kind of continuity in character – not ticky-tacky boxes all in a row, like we’re getting. Preserving island history of the last 50-100 years and further back should be incentivized IMO. How is it that someone who did everything right (the business in Vance’s old jewelry shop) must endure the hideous thing that went up next to it? If we are going to have a village that is cohesive, how can the county allow such blatant ugliness and continual tree pillage? There are no aesthetics police – and there should be no sandwich board police. The county needs to stop punishing the people who are just trying to get by however they can, and stop backpedaling on the tree ordinance before all of those are gone.
How do any of these above-mentioned signs that are NOT business signs, compete with your bike shop – or even the ones that are business signs? I’m trying to understand. I would very much like to keep this discussion going – or at least, started. Thanks for weighing in and sharing concerns.
Been thinking more about the noise ordinance; will it be ‘no chickens allowed’ next in the UGA noise ordinance when some city slicker is ‘bothered’ by the noise? Do chickens make too much noise between 10 pm and 7 am, and therefore we will have to ban chickens from the UGA? I see so much fodder for good satire!
These ordinances try to make our little UGA into someone’s mandated, lockstep lifeless idea of conformity – a popular mindset in our ‘leaders’ and how our whole system is set up (look up Delphi Technique if you don’t know what I mean) – yet so much that has been forced upon us is not popular with the people, who came here because we loved and still love the rural character and wonderful individualism that makes this a great community.
I’m fantasizing about initiatives and referendums and democratic voice…
I’m not able to quickly find it, but I’m pretty certain we went through this sign ordinance thing quite a few years back. This press release is not that they are instituting something new, it’s just polite notification that it’s time to clean up signage in the authorized and unauthorized areas.
RR Davis – care to elaborate on your own thoughts and actually get involved, or just hit and run on what you perceive about me without ever talking with me? Not anti toursm, yes, anti over-tourism which I’ve said and will say again – this is not the tourists’ fault! Have had many lovely conversations with tourists over the years They help us appreciate this place through fresh eyes. No cars? I am not suggesting mandating anything of the sort; I loathe mandates! Yep…involved in a lot of directions and expressing opinions in exercising my free speech rights. Love this place and the community. Who is advocating buying a bunch of anything? Yeah, I vote; think it’s important, especially on a local level. Got a problem with that?
Thanks, Lin, for clarifying this for people – I reacted to the removal part; still a sore subject, these ordinances. Thanks and for printing my frustrated diabribes and questioning.
I hope there WILL be renewed interest in what we can do in initiative and referendums. More voice for more people! I’ll shut up now (maybe!) :D
Sadie: I agree TOTALLY with almost ALL of what you are saying. Who the hell approved either one of those new buildings on main street?? Ugly as hell and we have to look at it every time we come into town, which is not often thank dog. And no idea what the building going up at the corner will look like. There is no rhyme nor reason to these “decisions”. I wonder how much money crossed hands to get these building approved???
A search of the County website for “initiative” will lead to the following information about
the procedures for initiative, mini-initiative, and referendum.
sjc initiative
https://www.codepublishing.com/WA/SanJuanCounty/
1.24.020 Initiative – Procedures.
E. Each initiative petition shall contain on its reverse side the full text of the proposed ordinance, clearly showing any portion of an ordinance to be amended, and on the front of the form the ballot title and a warning against unlawful signing of a petition, and shall include for each signatory a space for his or her printed name, street address, signature and date of signing, which shall be substantially in the form as shown in Attachment A (Form Initiative Petition)* attached to the ordinance codified in this chapter. All petitions shall be on white paper, legibly printed, and all signatures shall be executed in ink.
G. The sponsor has 120 days from the date of approval of the form of the petition to collect the signatures of registered voters in the County equal in number to at least 15 percent of the number of votes cast in the County in the last gubernatorial election. For purposes of satisfying this percentage, “the number of votes cast in the County in the last gubernatorial election” shall be the number of ballots lawfully cast in said election.
https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20201103/sanjuan/
2020 Election
Votes counted 13289
15% = 1,993.35 ( rounds to 1994 )
1.24.060 Mini-initiative.
A. A mini-initiative is a request to the County council to enact a local ordinance. A voter or group of voters may sponsor a mini-initiative proposal by filing with the County auditor a proposal to enact a new ordinance or an amendment to an existing ordinance.
F. The sponsor must submit signatures of registered voters in the County equal in number to at least three percent of the number of votes cast in the County in the last gubernatorial election. For purposes of satisfying this percentage, “the number of votes cast in the County in the last gubernatorial election” shall be the number of ballots lawfully cast in said election.
3% = 399 signatures
1.24.080 Referendum – Procedures.
F. Each referendum petition shall contain on its reverse side the full text of the ordinance proposed to be repealed, whether in whole or in part, clearly showing the portion to be repealed, and on the front of the form the ballot title and a warning against unlawful signing of a petition, and shall include for each signatory space for his or her printed name, street address, signature and date of signing, which shall be substantially in the form as shown in Attachment C (Form Referendum Petition)* attached to the ordinance codified in this chapter. All petitions shall be on white paper, legibly printed, and all signatures shall be executed in ink.
H. The sponsor has 120 days from the date of approval of the form of the petition to collect the signatures of registered voters in the County equal in number to at least 15 percent of the number of votes cast in the County in the last gubernatorial election. For purposes of satisfying this percentage, “the number of votes cast in the County in the last gubernatorial election” shall be the number of ballots lawfully cast in said election.
15% = 1,994 signatures