By:Tom Jordan
Sixty-two Rockville Centre businesses have received letters from the Building Department informing them that their signs are in violation of a village ordinance and must come down.
The ordinance, authored in 1983, is meant to limit the size of business signs, but a moratorium over the past 18 years has allowed them to remain standing.
Until now. Business owners were notified by mail in January that they must remove the signs by July or face a summons.
Those receiving letters included 25 stores on Sunrise Highway, seven on Maple Avenue, seven on N. Village, eight on Long Beach Road and 12 on Merrick Road.
In order to maintain the signs until now, said Building Department Supervisor Steve DeClue, business owners were required to apply for special permits. The permits cost between $100 and $840, and some are in affect until mid-2006.
"We think it's grossly unfair that the village issued the permits, charged for them and are now saying that the signs have to come down," said Gary Schwartz, president of the Rockville Centre Chamber of Commerce. "They were legal when they were erected and they're well-maintained. I'm not aware of any residents' complaints to the chamber."
But there have been complaints to the village about the balance of commercial and residential space in Rockville Centre. Joe Kelly, president of the Maple Avenue Task Force, a group concerned with zoning, traffic, environmental and beautification issues, was a member of the beautification committee that drafted the sign ordinance 18 years ago.
It's time for the plug to be pulled on the non-conforming signs, Kelly said.
"It's either a law or it's not," he said. "Most of our problem in the village is non-enforcement of things that are already on the books. The village is doing a better job of that now."
Schwartz said that at the time of the 1983 ordinance, nearly 180 signs were non-conforming. Most have gone by attrition, due to renovations or change in business. The remaining 62, he said, should be allowed to go the same way.
"We feel there should be a continued moratorium," he said. "These are stable businesses, not fly-by-night outfits. We don't want them to be penalized."
Paul Dedek of Dedek Bros. Garage, who paid a $192 permit fee, believes the crackdown is too harsh. "I could understand if they wanted to rid themselves of all of the signs in disrepair. But a lot of these businesses have been in business 50,60,70 years and have attractive signs. It becomes a little too much."
Members of the Chamber of Commerce plans to make a presentation to the Village Board the week of June 25 and hope to convince them to extend the moratorium.
During a meeting earlier this year, members of the board discussed the law and all agreed that it is time it was enforced. They said that they agreed with the original intent of the law and that some of the newer businesses to the villagetion are at a disadvantage because the law has not been enforced.
