Fayetteville

City Council will have its first public hearing

Monday on a new sign ordinance that restricts the

number of American flags a business can fly.

Public

comment also will be accepted at tonight's

planning session for the Monday meeting. Both

meetings are at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Businesses

will be able to fly no more than two flags -

one each for up to two government entities -

under a new sign ordinance recommended by the

city Planning Commission.

Some

businesses fly large numbers of American flags to

call attention to their locations, and that

constitutes advertising, said commission member

Segis "Al" Lipscomb during a recent

work session to discuss a number of changes in

the sign law. It's against federal law to use the

American flag in advertising, she added.

In

addition to that change and a number of new

restrictions on sizes and types of signs, the

commission is recommending that no internally

lighted signs be allowed.

local businessman protested that whether one

prefers lighted or unlighted signs is a matter of

personal taste, but city planner Todd Miller said

it's more than that.

"We're

adding more and more to the sky glow, and getting

further and further away from the small town

community that has made Fayetteville such an

attractive community to move to," he said.

City

Council will have its formal first reading of the

ordinance Monday, with plans to approve it May 1

after discussing it in another work session April

26.

Public

comment will be accepted at all four meetings.

Also

on the agenda Monday is Argonne Properties'

request for PCD (planned community development)

zoning for 110 acres on Ga. Highway 54 at Tiger

Trail, the ambitious Village project that

includes 203 houses plus shops, offices, a hotel

and parks.

But

council is unlikely to act on the plan unless a

detailed development agreement has been finished

for creativity in designing developments, but the

city gains more control because the details of

the development agreement are binding on both

current and future owners of the land in

question.

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