Time for New Albany aldermen to show common sense and courage

Frankly, I’m tired of writing about the badly flawed 2006 New Albany “sign ordinance” and its uneven, unfair enforcement.

The newly reconstituted New Albany Board of Aldermen now has an opportunity to show common sense and courage. First, they should grant an incontestably worthy variance to the silly ordinance. Then, they need to do the work of revising the foolish old thing into a more coherent and workable form.

Doctors Eric Harding and Shane Scott and their associates have built their respected Internal Medicine and Pediatric Clinic (IM&PC) into the largest medical practice in Union County. They have outgrown their old quarters on Bankhead Street.

Harding and Scott show vision, courage and love for this community by building the new 18,000 square foot clinic building on Oxford Road. They are taking a multi-million dollar risk. New Albany and Union County are getting a facility with 21 exam rooms, two procedure rooms, in-house laboratory and X-ray. Their patients will receive a great number of other benefits, as well.

The larger facility is nearing completion. The doctors want to install a new sign to inform the public about the services they offer. The proposed new sign apparently falls outside the confusing parameters of the above named ordinance, and the New Albany Zoning board has made a proper ruling.

City fathers should match the common sense and courage of business owners

The zoning board members have stated that they believe it’s a “great looking” and appropriate sign. They say they will have “no objection” if the alderman act to allow the sign. The matter now goes before the aldermen. They are asked to make a sensible variance to the 2006 ordinance.

Previous aldermen have made the excuse that they didn’t want to offend the zoning board members by granting variances. “That dog don’t hunt” in this instance (if it ever did).

This is a no-brainer, folks. The new clinic building represents a major economic development for New Albany and Union County. About 30 new jobs for medical professionals are expected to be among the results of this new facility.

There is no need to waste time quibbling over whether the IM&PC sign meets every trivial, arbitrary sentence of the sign ordinance. That this sign should be approved should be self-evident to any savvy public servant. Time for the new Board of Aldermen to step up and do right.

More about the sign ordinance and its various insults to New Albany businesses and their customers: 

To see proposed sign: Zoning board passes to aldermen: http://nanewsweb.com/zoning-board-passes-question/
Where is the common sense? http://nanewsweb.com/signs-in-new-albany-theatre-of-the-absurd/
Uneven enforcement: http://nanewsweb.com/signs-of-new-albany-part-ii-selective-enforcement-poor-judgment/