EDMONDS, Wash. — But people in two local towns say the waist-high boards are out of control.
More than a dozen signs are up around 5th and Main Street in Edmonds every day.
“They're irritating and ridiculous," said Alyson Lynch. Her mother recently tripped over a sign as she left a store.
"She didn't even see it, the way it was sitting on the sidewalk, and she fell," she said.
Natalie Shippen, a former Edmonds city councilwoman, used the public comment period at more than four City Council meetings to complain about the boards.
"They reminded me of an outbreak of measles. They were just speckled up and down the street,” she said.
Residents in La Conner also complained to their City Council this summer about the signs turning into a health hazard for tourists.
According to the Edmonds city code, businesses can only use sandwich signs for 60 days a year, but it doesn’t say those days have to be in a row.
"The law says it's only enforced upon citizen complaint. I just couldn't believe that is the law when I found out about it," said Shippen.
Janet Hill says the sign outside her salon paid for itself Friday.
"We have somebody in here right now from the sign being out there,” she said.
Hill says business owners are responsible enough to regulate themselves.
"We have several clients that are in here every week because of those,” she said.
The Edmonds City Council may look at revising the city’s sign codes in the New Year.
KIRO
