CITY MAY SUBSIDIZE COST OF SIGN APPEALS.Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer City contingency funds might be tapped to alleviate Alleviate To make something easier to be endured. Mentioned in: Kinesiology, Applied some financial pressures of small-business owners, who face citations as the deadline nears to meet sign ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been regulations. City planners have drawn up a subsidy subsidy, financial assistance granted by a government or philanthropic foundation to a person or association for the purpose of promoting an enterprise considered beneficial to the public welfare. program that would offset two fees for businesses and property owners with signs that don't conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?" fit, meet coordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" the new standards. The first would provide $415 toward the city's application fee for a sign variance to keep existing signs. The second would subsidize sub·si·dize tr.v. sub·si·dized, sub·si·diz·ing, sub·si·diz·es 1. To assist or support with a subsidy. 2. To secure the assistance of by granting a subsidy. $1,040 in legal costs to appeal administrative decisions on variance requests, planning manager Conal McNamara said. The council will consider the proposed subsidies at its 6:30 p.m. meeting tonight in City Hall. If approved, each funding mechanism would require a $25,000 transfer from the city's contingency fund, for a total of $50,000, McNamara wrote in a memo to council members. Council members requested at their Sept. 14 meeting that a subsidy program be created after more than 20 small-business owners spoke against the sign ordinance and others worried about its financial impact. Although the sign ordinance's enforcement will begin Nov. 13, its approval took place in 1990. The City Council at that time voted to delay enforcement nine years, to give business owners time to prepare, finance new signs and find other ways to heighten height·en v. height·ened, height·en·ing, height·ens v.tr. 1. To raise or increase the quantity or degree of; intensify. 2. To make high or higher; raise. v.intr. their businesses' visibility. Of the businesses affected by the sign ordinance, about 76 percent have complied, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. city officials. Many received assistance through city sponsored programs to have new signs designed for their business at no cost or receive low-interest loans from local banks, they said. In his recommendation to the council, McNamara warns members that subsidizing appeal fees would benefit applicants, but would not provide applicants with an incentive to work with staff members to reach a compromise. Although $50,000 would be set aside to subsidize small-business owners, the actual impact on the city is not known, he said. |
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