Variable Electronic Signs Pass Grafton Town Meeting After 4 Year Fight

I find this article very poorly written and does not paint an accurate picture of the bylaw or process to approve it.

First, the vote was not on if these CEVMS signs should or should not be allowed in town, the vote was related to how to restrict them and control them. The headline would be more accurate if it read, "Variable Electronic Sign Restrictions Pass after 4 year effort"

The amendment was to restrict these signs to areas zoned as Community Business not to "existing business districts" because Neighborhood business was not in the amendment.

This is not a "long fought victory for the Planning Board which has been struggling for four years to devise a by-law that would meet the needs of businesses, which want the signs, and placate the residents who fear they would turn the town into a Las Vegas strip." -- First, this bylaw only recently came before the Planning Board after the BOS voted to disband the Sign Bylaw Committee which had been working on this issue for the past couple years. I would not characterize this issue as a "fight" but more a thoroughly thought out solution to the problems created by this newer technology and a true attempt to balance the wishes of residents and business owners. The victory is to all the residents of Grafton, who finally after four years, voted to define the technology in the bylaw, and put restrictions in place rather than allowing them to proliferate all over Grafton. This was not an issue of more or less of these signs, it was where and how they could and could not be used. The bylaw was specifically an attempt to prevent Grafton from becoming the "Las Vegas strip".

"Paul Scarlett of the Grafton Historic District Commission proposed an amendment which required the variable flashing signs to be permitted only in existing business districts, grandfathering those that are out of compliance now." --- Again, incorrectly worded. The amendment was for CEVMS to be permitted only in areas zoned Community Business not all existing business districts. These are not flashing signs, the bylaw passed specifically addresses this and does not permit flashing, anything that simulates motion or video, does not allow scrolling or tons of transitioning messages so calling them "flashing signs" is inaccurate

Overall, the voters took a step in the right direction, finally putting through a bylaw that mentions this technology, defines the functionality and places limits on how they are used, how bright they appear and where they can go. These restrictions passed are much better than leaving this issue up to interpretation and allowing these signs to spring up all over Grafton without any operating guidelines or enforcement.

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