FULLERTON : Liberalized Banner Bill Rejected by City

The City Council voted down a proposed emergency ordinance this week that would have liberalized laws on display banners in the city for one year.

The proposed change would have allowed business owners to display promotional banners for 60 days during a six-month period instead of the current 30 days in an effort to help businesses fight the recession. It also would have eliminated for one year the $53 permit fee the city charges merchants for a permit to fly promotional banners.

“We feel that many small businesses are struggling to make a go of it,” said Fullerton Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Frank M. Reid, who has actively lobbied for the bill’s passage. “This was a genuine request from our organization to help people in a time of economic crisis.

“I don’t think the City Council appreciates the importance of business in the community,” Reid added angrily.

Councilwoman Molly McClanahan said that opposing the bill and being hostile to business were not the same thing.

“I think it is very difficult to gauge the economic health of a community from (banners) flying in the wind,” McClanahan said. “I don’t want to come across as being anti-business, but there is no hard and fast rule about people doing impulse buying because they see something blowing in the wind.”

The ordinance would also have streamlined the application process for permits by allowing property owners to apply for the permit from a field officer instead of going to City Hall to apply at the Development Services Department.

It would also have changed the law to permit businesses in the Fullerton central business district to display banners. Merchants in the area bounded by Commonwealth and Chapman avenues are forbidden to fly banners.

The law drew the support of three of the five council members, but because it was an emergency ordinance, it needed the support of four of the five council members to be enacted.