PORT ANGELES — Herbert Lutz has the question, but he says he also knows the answer.
The reader board on the side of his Lincoln Street business, up since April 8, asks if the Port Angeles City Council is unfriendly to small business.
For Lutz, the owner of Maria’s Mexican restaurant, the simple answer is yes.
He claims his business was unfairly hurt by the city’s sign ordinance, which prevented him from replacing a sign that was taken by the previous business owner more than two years ago.
The original sign, while it violated the 2002 ordinance because it hung too far over the sidewalk, was grandfathered in.
When Lutz sought to put up a sign of the same size about four months later, he was surprised to find that the grandfather clause only applied to the sign that was removed.
Not being able to put up the sign, which cost $6,300, lost him business, Lutz maintains.
And, while last month he put up another code-compliant sign, which cost another $6,400, he said he is still bitter over the lost money.
“I’m a victim,” he said.
“I’m still sore over what I went through.”
But city Planning Manager Sue Roberds said staff were sympathetic to his situation and went above and beyond in trying to help.
“We told him: You can put up a conforming sign, and we’ll help you with that,” she said.
Roberds said that she and other planning staff showed him what size of signs would be allowed and filled out some paperwork for him.
“We actually spent a whole day drawing different signs for him that he could put up and showed him where they could be placed,” she said.
Lutz, 67, said he wasn’t looking for new drawings. He wanted an exception to allow the first sign he purchased to go up.
He said he deserves that because he wasn’t the one who removed the original sign, which he claims actually belonged to him as the building’s owner.
He points to the other noncompliant signs on Lincoln Street that remain grandfathered.
“Why is mine all of a sudden different?” Lutz asked.
Roberds said the city couldn’t give him an exception because he didn’t know the regulations.
While he feels better after getting a new sign up, Lutz said he won’t change the reader board until he gets an apology.
“I want to let people know it,” he said. “I want people to know what they did.”
Roberds said the city has nothing to apologize for.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio said he wasn’t getting involved since it’s a staff issue.
But, he added, he disagrees with Lutz that the City Council isn’t friendly to business.
“We’re always trying to find ways to be more supportive of businesses,” he said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.