All seven on Valley sign committee have business ties

All seven members appointed to a new committee that will review the city’s sign code have ties to the business community.

The Spokane Valley City Council, which had previously appointed five of the members, made the final two appointments during a study session Tuesday evening.

“It sounds slanted to me,” said Spokane Valley resident Jan Hannink, who served on similar committees when Spokane County studied its sign code six years ago.

The new city committee was to include one representative from the city’s Planning Commission, two from the sign industry, two from the general business community and two citizens to represent the community at large.

The appointees include Planning Commission member David Crosby, who works as a Realtor; sign industry members John Johnston, of Sign Corp., and Duane Halliday, of Lamar Outdoor Advertising; and general business community representatives Ken Holloway, of the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Denny York, of Yoke’s Fresh Markets.

The citizens are represented by David Quinn, who formerly owned a business called Graphic Design and was vice president of sales for the awning and sign division of F.O. Berg, and Ray Perry, a member of the Spokane Valley Business Association.

In other city news, the council on Tuesday allocated tourism promotion funds to help advertise a community event.

On the sign issue, Hannink and resident Virginia Korn were the only other applicants for the committee’s citizen seats. Mayor Mike DeVleming said the city delayed the application deadline an extra week hoping to attract more interest.

Members often describe the City Council as business-friendly. When asked whether the council purposefully chose citizen representatives with business backgrounds, DeVleming said there “wasn’t any particular reason” for the selection.

He added, “It’s no mystery that there clearly are some problems with the way the sign code is now.”

Spokane Valley adopted the county’s sign code when it incorporated last year. The code restricts the size and number of signs on properties.

Some businesspeople have said Spokane Valley is cluttered with signs because the city doesn’t enforce the basic sign rules. The code’s extra restrictions wouldn’t be necessary if the city cleared out the banners, balloons and other inexpensive markers, they have said.

Other community members have said tighter restrictions that require uniform and tasteful-looking signs would help make Spokane Valley a more attractive destination for shoppers and others.

Korn, a stay-at-home mom, said she’d hoped to share her perspective as a regular citizen who relies on signs to go about daily life and who also has concerns for the business community. She said without good signage, it’s tough sometimes to see what companies sit in the city’s many strip malls.

“You don’t want it to become an eyesore, but you don’t want people to go out of business,” Korn said.

The committee members have another trait in common: They’re all men. Hannink said that matters.

“Women are more attuned to aesthetics,” she said.

The committee will review the code and make recommendations for changes to the council as it writes its comprehensive land-use plan.

In other business Tuesday, the council gave Valleyfest, a weekend-long community fair held in September, $15,000 for advertising.

The funds came from money collected by hotels and motels and allocated by the council to promote tourism.

The council had distributed $299,000 of the so-called tourism promotion funds in January. Valleyfest applied at that time, but withdrew its application.

The nonprofit group recently approached the city to request money again, but opening up a second round of allocations for just one group bothered Councilman Steve Taylor. He also noted that Councilman Mike Flanigan, who sits on a committee that recommends to the council how to distribute the money, didn’t provide the council with paperwork on the recommendation before the meeting.

“It might appear to some … that the entities could pull out of the competition during main round only to come back for money when there’s less competition,” Taylor said.

Flanigan said the council reserved tourism promotion funds for use later in the year in case a good idea for the money came along. He said Valleyfest, which plans to use the money for a television ad campaign, was a worthy recipient.

“This is about the purest utilization of this money that we’ve seen,” Flanigan said.