SEQUIM –– After a battle with the city that ended in a fine, Randy Wellman, owner of Tarcisio’s Italian Place, now has a sign near the street to advertise his restaurant’s specials.
“The first day I put it out, I had people come in and say, ‘Oh, I saw the special on your sign,’” Wellman said.
A new city ordinance restricting signs outside of Sequim’s downtown core meant Wellman was violating the rules by placing a sign declaring his specials next to the sidewalk on West Washington Street.
The rules said he could put a sign next to his restaurant, but Wellman said that placement would not be visible to passing traffic because his restaurant is set off the street in the Sequim Village Plaza shopping center.
Such signs were banned because the council decided they cluttered the streetscape.
Wellman was fined earlier this year $125 for continuing to post the sign, a fine paid by Walt Schubert, a former mayor of Sequim.
A solution has been reached in which signs are placed on city-approved posts near the street.
Last week, Wellman posted a compliant sign on posts installed near the sidewalk by the shopping center’s owners.
“It was frustrating, sure,” Wellman said. “But the cool thing is the city worked with us, and we came up with a solution that works for everybody.’
“The fact that this has finally come to a close is a relief to us,” said Chris Hugo, director of community development.
“The way it was installed, it looks neat. I think it’s an improvement over the sort-of-haphazard temporary sign he had been using.”
Michelle Ridgway, manager of the shopping center, said the center had three posts made for tenant signs by Nick Schuhmacher of Crazy Nick’s auto dealer in Port Angeles.
The powder-coated galvanized steel posts cost the center $1,500.
“I do think they help our tenants,” Ridgway said.
“We’re set back off the street a bit. A little exposure on the street can help bring in more out-of-towners.”
Approval of the posts took some time, Ridgway said, because city staff and the shopping center disagreed over how far the city’s right of way extended from the sidewalk.
The posts have been installed inside from a hedgerow that lines a strip of grass along the sidewalk.
Once that solution was reached, the posts were ordered and installed.
Signs can be no larger than 12 square feet and must come down every night, Ridgway said.
“I think it’s a good solution,” Hugo said. “Our job is to enforce the rules and to do it as fairly as we can.
“We also have to be customer-friendly, though, and work together for these solutions.”
With the sign dispute behind him, Wellman now takes a kinder view of the city’s business climate.
“The process worked,” he said. “I think it shows to anybody who has an issue that all you have to do is go down and talk it out with them, and things can work out.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.