WAVE 3 - Louisville, KYCity faces lawsuit over unclear sign regulations

City faces lawsuit over unclear sign regulations

By Connie Leonard

(LOUISVILLE) -- Some local business owners are suing the city after being issued citations for signs outside their businesses. In some cases, the signs have been there for years. As WAVE 3's Connie Leonard reports, the owners say the city's sign regulations don't make sense and the way they're being enforced is random and arbitrary.

The controversy centers on the definition of what constitutes a "sign." The city Planning Commission's definition is that it's any device that draws attention to a business. And that has many folks riled up.

According to the city, Chinese horse statues in front of P.F. Chang's China Bistro are not signs.

Attorney Michael Tigue, who represents some of the business owners who are suing the city, told us "the Planning Commission specifically approved on its record, those Chinese horse statues as being quote 'distinctive public art.'"

Across town, the big bass and catfish in front of Pepper Tackle in Valley Station are signs, according to the Planning Commission. So after six years of paying them off, the restaurant's owner, Norman Pepper, has now been told they have to go.

"They wrote me a citation," he said. "They're going to start fining me $500 a day."

The difference between a fish and a horse has Pepper and others suing the city.

Tigue says the reason some businesses are being cited while others are not comes down to "whether or not someone's called in to complain."

The city's regulations on signage are vague at best, Tigue said. A citation against one of his clients, Three R Landlord Inc., which owns the Hooter's at 7701 Preston Highway, prompted the lawsuit. 

The Louisville-Jefferson County Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses recently cited that Hooters for putting up two 30-ft. neon palm trees, saying they were illegal signs.

Tigue says the trees are clearly decorations, not signs. "They went out, they put up what they thought were decorative palm trees, and lo and behold, here we are."

Just down the street, similar palm trees stand outside the Godfather, but that business has not been cited.

"To this day, there's never been an explanation for why one was cited and the other wasn't," Tigue said.

Rueff Sign Company owner Bob Rueff helped write the city's current regulations. He says "you certainly can't write a sign ordinance in black in white."

Rueff tried to offer an explanation as to why one business may have been cited while another down the street was not. "I think if those palm trees were on the plans when they built the building, they probably wouldn't say anything, but since they added them afterwards, somebody came along -- it might have been a competitor -- saying 'he's getting some of my business.'"

Rueff agrees the current regulations are vague, but says it's impossible to satisfy everyone, and that without regulations, some businesses would fill their property with signs.

People like Pepper don't see it that way. "This is my town, too. I've been in it 50 years. I've never been written up, I've paid my taxes and done the best I could, and all my neighbors and everything will tell you my place always looks real decent. Why they would want to jump on this fish is beyond me."

The Metro Planning Commission planned to address the issue at its public meeting Thursday night. Rueff said he feels a separate committee should be set up to review each sign complaint on a case by case basis.

Online Reporter: Connie Leonard

Online Producer: Michael Dever