About two years ago the Town of Fountain Hills agreed to revise its sign code.

The amended rules adopted by the Town Council were generally seen as “business friendly” – more lenient than they used to be in terms of such controversial items as banners, A-frames and the like.

The Town Council was split on the issue (4-2 vote), however. Officials at the time promised that with the new regulations would come a new wave of enforcement, that local businesses and others would be educated about the rules and that enforcement action would follow if they didn’t abide by the new rules.

Now we find out much hasn’t changed in two years.

Staff reports that a survey taken this past October revealed that 80 percent of the signs in use were in violation of some aspect of the ordinance. 80 percent!

Staff still admits there is a lax enforcement policy, enforcement remains complaint driven and cites the still-lagging economy as one more reason to extend the allowance of banners and A-frame signs.

If the council is going to extend use of such signs, a strong mechanism needs to be put in place so that enforcement can be initiated and followed up by the town. More than lip service is needed in this area – why pass a set of rules and then allow said rules to be ignored? It’s only fair to those businesses that follow the regulations that ALL businesses be forced to submit to the same set of rules and abide by them.