What's your sign?
If you're a business owner in Springdale, city government may want an answer to that question.
What’s the point?
Springdale city leaders have started discussing the potential for stronger sign standards across the city. As Springdale’s momentum toward positive developments builds, this is a good time for such a review.
It's not that Springdale city hall is suddenly overrun with astrologers trying to discern when Mercury is in retrograde. But recent discussions by aldermen are about what the future might look like in a town that's gaining momentum toward better days.
Fresh off adoption of development restrictions for the undeveloped lands around Arvest Ballpark, some city leaders are eye-balling ways the rest of Springdale's appearance could be tweaked. Or maybe even more than tweaked.
At a recent meeting, Alderman Mike Overton led a discussion about the city's regulation of business signs. He noted that Thompson Street, Sunset Avenue and Robinson Avenue are "a mess." He's not the first nor the last to make that observation.
It seems the experience of defining what's acceptable for signs on the mostly undeveloped land around the city-owned minor league ballpark has opened the minds of some people to ways the community can be improved. City leaders view the ballpark area as one with high potential for development and wanted to establish strong standards so that development happening there would complement the city's investment and all of the businesses the city hopes will build there.
The ballpark area is a special case. The city is establishing expectations before much happens there. Having a positive impact in the rest of the city can be far more complicated because existing businesses already have their signs and their appearance. Nobody's talking about replicating the ballpark's stricter overlay district in the rest of the city, but could there be room for improvement across the city?
This is a discussion that in the not-too-distant past seemed unlikely for Springdale, where such regulation was -- and no doubt in some corners, still is -- viewed as too unfriendly to businesses. There are still those who are willing to let businesses do whatever they want as long as they'll be creating jobs as well as paying or collecting tax revenue for the city.
But there's also a growing sense that Springdale needs to improve its aesthetics if it's going to be an attractive place for people to live or to operate their businesses. The city already has a moratorium on new billboards, having recognized a need to get control of their proliferation. Other larger cities in the region have had success with stronger regulation of business signs without killing their economic base.
For too long, Springdale has been viewed as the anything goes kind of town, and a drive along its major thoroughfares demonstrates how that turns out. This is an important step for a community as it builds momentum. But it's not something that can be accomplished overnight.
With the ballpark overlay district, city officials worked in collaboration with business and property owners. That kind of model is needed to develop standards for the rest of the city. Businesses operators must be viewed as partners, and they must engage with the city as leaders of a movement to make Springdale better for everyone.
Once upon a time, one might expect business leaders to simply dig their heels in to resist such changes, but the kind of improvements at the center of this discussion can benefit everyone as long as new standards are fairly and reasonably applied.
Springdale can prove it's strong on business through effective collaboration that brings about positive change for the community.
Important questions will include whether to allow for variances and how long businesses will get to make plans for changing their signs to meet new standards. Should be a year? Five years? A decade? That's all negotiable, but hopefully everyone can get behind the idea of transitioning Springdale from the City of Clutter to one considered most improved.
The evidence in other communities demonstrate sign standards done right can enhance businesses and the community rather than kill them. The days ahead seem brighter for Springdale, a fact that makes discussions like these easier.
City leaders will continue the discussions at future meetings, and we hope they'll invite the business community to be heavily involved in forging a plan.
Maybe the stars are aligned for a better future in Springdale.
Commentary on 03/27/2015