ISA and State Sign Association Making a Difference
With a rash of proposed moratoriums on digital signs sweeping a western state, ISA’s James Carpentier joined affiliated association staff and sign companies to educate local officials on how to effectively treat EMCs.
Many jurisdictions in Utah are currently considering draconian restrictions on EMCs, including moratoriums and bans. In order to combat these efforts and communicate the economic value of these kinds of signs to local officials, ISA’s James Carpentier, the Utah Sign Association’s Patti King, and representatives from YESCO took part in a two-day educational barnstorming tour of the state. On Thursday, 48 local officials from 30 Utah jurisdictions came to YESCO’s facilities in Salt Lake and earned certification maintenance credits for participating in ISA’s Finding Common Ground presentation. Later, the sign team visited with local officials in Cottonwood Heights, Farmington and Salt Lake County to speak with them about how EMCs benefit businesses and communities. Many of these sign code officials were pleased to accept model sign code language, ISA’s EMC Night-time Brightness Recommendations, and to learn the legal, technical and regulatory differences between on-premise and off-premise digital signs. And on Friday, the sign team met with the League of Utah Cities and Towns to stress the importance of signs for local economies.
Despite the progress made with this outreach, extensive follow-up and continued monitoring of the situation in Utah is necessary to ensure that the state’s communities don’t enact unreasonable and counter-productive EMC regulations. For more information, please contact [email protected] or [email protected].
