Sign restrictions

In removing many of the signage restrictions imposed only five months earlier, the Cape Girardeau City Council prudently retained some limitations that remain reasonable.

The city kept its prohibition on placing signs in city rights of way and will require that garage-sale signs placed off-site on private property include the date and address of the sale.

Garage sale signs can be posted only the day before the sale and must be removed at the end of the day of the sale, and the permission of the private property owner must be obtained before any sign can be placed off-site.

The original amendments to the ordinance passed in April banned almost all banner signs and limited people to one on-premise garage sale sign to be kept up only while the sale was in progress. Businesses now are allowed one banner sign. The council also rescinded restrictions on the number and size of garage-sale signs and dispensed with size limits on real estate signs.

Mayor Jay Knudtson characterized the April changes as "fine-tuning that went too far."

New restrictions were imposed last April in part because the city's sign ordinance wasn't being obeyed or enforced. The best way for real estate companies, retail merchants and people holding garage sales to keep the city from revisiting the issue is to abide by the law.