01/11/06 — Pikeville to consider sign ordinance

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Pikeville to consider sign ordinance

By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on January 11, 2006 1:50 PM

Outgoing Pikeville town administrator Lonnie Graves is hard at work wrapping things up. In addition to preparing a package for his successor, Graves has been charged by the town board with drafting a sign ordinance to be presented at the next board meeting.

The ordinance is an attempt to regulate and streamline growth along the new U.S. 117 corridor, which opened last month

"We're going to talk about billboards and that kind of thing," Graves said. "We do need to regulate this avenue sector, because if it is unregulated, if there are no guidelines, it could really detract from the value of the whole community."

Graves said town commissioners see a great potential for growth along the new highway, and want to set clear guidelines early.

"We began investigating the worst case scenario. We looked and we saw that if it was not put in check, we could have potentially 50 billboards on 117 just in Pikeville. Fifty billboards is a lot of billboards, so we definitely want to regulate this."

The town has not heard opposition to the new ordinance, Graves said.

"When we really spell it out and sit down with everybody, and talk about what we're asking for, I don't think the request will be unreasonable. We just want to regulate the growth, and keep it orderly."