Anxious to get a lighted sign for its new tenant, Food Depot, the owners asked the board in October to issue a sign permit under the premise the company would replace its Movies 10 and Banks Station sign.

That did not happen. So, council members promptly shot down the company's latest variance request for a sign permit Feb. 3. Typically, the city does not issue sign permits to properties with non-conforming signs.

"I've got a problem," Fayetteville Mayor Pro-tem Larry Dell said during a regular-scheduled City Council meeting. "I have a real problem with this. In good faith, we gave them until Dec. 31. But I've got a hard problem with the fact that in good faith, they did absolutely nothing."

A representative who spoke on behalf of Equity Investment Group, which owns the shopping center, told the board the owners want to honor the self-imposed arrangement, but the terms of the lease prohibited the owners.

"Equity Investment knows that it has to be down. They want it down," the representative said. "But at the moment it comes down, it puts them in default, which you can imagine as a landlord has created enormous nightmares."