The North Huntingdon board of commissioners is weighing an ordinance that would regulate electronic signs in the township, but the board does not want to impose as many restrictions as the planning commission had recommended.
Since last fall, Planning Director Andrew Blenko and the planning commission have worked on bringing the board an ordinance that would regulate not only the building of new electronic signs, but also how they display their messages. At the March 13 commissioners meeting, Blenko presented the results of their work.
"It's an important issue, an awful lot of work has gone into it from the planning commission," Blenko said.
Blenko got input from North Huntingdon police, the Pennsylvania Outdoor Light-ing Council, local sign companies and area municipalities that have implemented similar ordinances. Planning commission members each submitted their ideas on the kinds of messages and signs they thought the township should allow, and Blenko combined all the ideas.
As proposed by Blenko, the ordinance would have limited electronic signs to single-color, non-animated messages that remained onscreen for at least eight seconds, a time he said was an industry standard. The ordinance also set a maximum brightness, height and size for electronic signs.
Safety was Blenko's primary concern. He said restricting animation would reduce driver distraction. He also cited the planning commission's concerns about what could happen if electronic signs continued to go up without regulation.
"Route 30 would look like a circus midway or Las Vegas or Times Square," Blenko said.
Commissioners however, disputed Blenko's argument that flashy electronic signs unduly influence drivers.
"It doesn't distract me much. People on cell phones distract me more," said Commissioner Anthony Mart-ino.
Commissioner Lee Moffatt raised an objection to language in the ordinance that would allow only one sign per piece of property.
He argued the restriction would put tenants in shopping malls at an unfair advantage and cut into their ability to advertise.
Commissioner Rich Gray said the only areas he wanted to regulate were signs' brightness and size.
Commissioners asked Blenko to come back to this evening's meeting with a modified ordinance.