Planning Board members Jessica Thornton, David Spina, David Sutton, Richard Utzinger, Marcus Phelps, and Michael Doherty. (THE WESTFIELD NEWS PHOTO)
By Dennis Hackett
Staff writer
SOUTHWICK- The Southwick Planning Board Feb. 25 reviewed the town’s sign bylaw after a digital sign at Moolicious Farm sparked a discussion at the board’s Jan. 28 meeting.
During the meeting Tuesday, the Planning Board took a new look at the issue by discussing the possibility of changing the town’s sign bylaw to allow using electronic variable messaging signs for agricultural use and changing the restrictions on those signs.
Planning Board member Jessica Thornton said that if they changed the bylaw they should make sure that the change goes under the agricultural use section of the bylaw to not cause confusion with different types of signs.
“It makes more sense to do a column under agricultural use as opposed to opening up the issue to now allowing a residential business to do something,” she said.
Southwick resident Bill Crawford said that it could be beneficial to allow larger signs that change at a slower rate.
“The larger the electronic sign the less it’s going to be changing and can get more data on there, so it won’t be changing as much,” he said.
Select Board Vice Chair Douglas Moglin attended the meeting and said the Southwick Inn’s sign was one of the best signs that comply with the bylaw as well as being easy on the eyes.
“The Southwick Inn has a palatable sign because of how they light it and they are in substantial conformance with the bylaw as far as how they change the sign,” he said. “If you sit through three cycles of the light you will probably see that sign change.”
When discussing how often signs in town could change its message, Planning Board member Marcus Phelps said that he looked at Springfield’s current bylaw because that bylaw allows signs to change every 10 seconds as opposed to the hour requirement in Southwick. He said, “In Springfield they call it a changing image sign and they allow it to refresh no faster than every 10 seconds, and there is a whole calculation that you can do. I think it’s too short, but an hour’s too long.”
While residents and members of the Board discussed potentially having a case by case basis about how often a message changes, Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty argued against this notion and said, “I’m not inclined to have some open ended type of bylaw, that seems ripe for problems. It doesn’t seem difficult to envision someone getting themselves and a couple of friends on the board and doing whatever they want.”
Board members sent the issue to the Select Board to begin the process to plan a public hearing on April 7 to discuss changes to agricultural use of electronic variable messaging signs.
The Southwick Planning Board will meet next on March 10.
