The York County Planning Commission voted 3-2 Wednesday to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve electronic signs for places of worship with messages that change as frequently as every eight seconds.
The current rules allow for electronic signs on many places of worship in the county, however those messages may only change every 24 hours. The issue was raised after a church approached the county asking for the change.
York County Zoning Administrator J. Mark Carter told the commission that the issue was studied by the commission and by citizens in 2009, when a shopping center owner asked the county to amend the ordinance to allow the signs. When the matter was brought up then, there was originally a 15-minute delay between message changes.
Carter said staff looked at studies from the past five to 10 years that showed there was “no direct linkage that says electronic signs versus any other type of signs causes more accidents.” By limiting the signs to shopping centers rather than individual businesses, the number of signs in the county would be limited.
Though some places of worship are next door to one another, those clusters are “few and far between” Carter told the planners. Commissioner Glenn Brazelton asked if there was any kind of permitting process under the proposed ordinance in case several places of worship in a cluster all wanted to install the signs. As the proposed ordinance is currently structured, the signs would be allowed by right.
Planning commission chairman Mark Suiter took issue with the signs, saying to allow them at places of worship would start a slippery slope. While there is a limited number of shopping centers in the county, there are more places of worship.
“If we approve [places of worship], why shouldn’t we add gas stations? Restaurants? Drug stores? We had a rationale for shopping centers because multiple tenants can’t have their own signs,” Suiter said.
He went on to say he doesn’t like the idea of the signs in residential neighborhoods. The proposed ordinance does not allow for flashing or scrolling messages.
Suiter was joined by Brazelton in voting no, while commissioners Richard Myer, Tim McCulloch and Todd Mathes all voted yes.
The proposed ordinance was slightly modified shortly before it went before the planners after the York County Planning Division received a letter from a citizen who said he or she was concerned that the changing messages might be too bright at night. Because of that, the places of worship are required to reduce their illumination at night.
Places of worship in some parts of the county are prohibited from having the electronic signs due to their presence in a Tourist Corridor Management Overlay area. In York County, those areas are George Washington Memorial Highway (Route 17) from Cook Road north, Richmond Road, Bypass Road, Pocahontas Trail, Route 132, Merrimac Trail west of Queens Creek, Goosley Road east of Route 17, Cook Road, the Colonial Parkway, Second Street from Merrimac Trail to the Williamsburg line, Route 199, Interstate 64 and any frontage road along I-64.
During the public hearing for the proposed change, one county resident spoke. David Bates, a member of Bethel Baptist Church, said he supports the change. He said the current ordinance is “not helpful” for churches to get their message out.
The issue will now go before the York County Board of Supervisors who have the final say on whether to change the ordinance. The public will again have a chance to offer comment at that point.
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