Businesses get gift of signage during holidays

The mayor and City Council voted tonight to temporarily “turn a blind eye” to city codes this holiday season to allow businesses to put up extra signage and decorations, but how exactly nonprofits and houses of worship will be included is yet to be determined.

Shop Maricopa, a seasonal economic growth project designed to keep Maricopa shoppers spending their money within city limits, means A-frames, banners, holiday trimmings and more will start popping up along local streets touting local business. (Click here for program restrictions.)

Mayor Kelly Anderson explained that because many Maricopa residents who have come here from elsewhere have brought with them traditions of doing just that back home, and have expressed interest in instituting similar practices here.

“We’ll see how this goes this year, and hopefully people will shop and have a good time in Maricopa,” Anderson said.

“We’ve got 35,000 people living here, and only about 8,000 of them shopping here now,” Councilman Will Dunn added, explaining that no one will be charged a fee, no one will be blind-sighted by code enforcers out to get them as long as everything is done safely and within program guidelines.

“We want Maricopans to shop in Maricopa,” Dunn said. “That is what this is about.”

Program guidelines, however, stipulate that to participate one must own a business license.

As a local pastor pointed out in the work session immediately before the Council meeting, churches and nonprofits are not required to maintain a license, and therefore many of them don’t.

Scott Helsel, lead pastor of Oasis Life Church, later spoke out during the call to the public not only on behalf of his church but for local small businesses that also need the additional support and visibility that A-frame signs and other street signage could provide.

Helsel said he is fully aware that doing so is not allowed under city code.

That’s why he said it’s about time the code changed.

“We definitely understand there is a lot to be discussed in that regard,” he said.

In the meantime, Helsel is working with city officials to open the door for nonprofits and churches to participate in the Shop Maricopa program, which will run from Nov. 12 to Jan 7.

“We want to have input into this thing,” he said. “Code enforcement has still not agreed to back off.”

Until recently, Helsel and many other churches and businesses had displayed signage not up to city code without facing any consequences. However, the city’s code enforcer, Brian Duncan, has since stepped up enforcement of the code and has made sure all such signs have been removed. In the case of Helsel, who has been operating a church in the 19700 block of North John Wayne Parkway in Maricopa since February, a request to remove the signs didn’t come until Sept. 27.

This isn’t the first time Helsel has faced this sort of dilemma. Last spring, he said, the city initially denied his request for a permit for seasonal signage touting Easter services.

Dunn, who had assured Helsel during the evening’s work session, which preceded the regular meeting, that the Christmas season wouldn’t likely turn out to be spoiled with red tape, offered to help find a resolution before leaving tonight.

“I apologize. I would have said, ‘Go and throw a fit, preach fire and brimstone,'” Dunn said, recanting his previous advice to simply enjoy the temporary rules until permanent changes could take place.

Roger Kolman, interim city manager, seemed to have been caught a bit off guard when Helsel and Dunn approached him after the council meeting seeking a clarification regarding the necessity of requiring a business license to participate in the temporary holiday reprieve.

“I don’t think we thought this program completely through,” Kolman said. “Safety is an issue for us.”

Other permit requirements include making sure participants have approval from property managers if they are in a shopping center or strip mall, making sure entrances and fire hydrants aren’t blocked and that electrical cords for lighting and such do not present a hazard of any kind.

That’s why any changes to circumvent or change the process would have to go through a public hearing process which would then go back to the council for approval.

Kolman told Helsel he’d “talk to Planning and Zoning tomorrow and see what we can get going with this hearing.”

“It’s certainly something that needs to be addressed,” Kolman said.

Helsel agreed.

“I want it to be clear we are wanting to work this out within the system,” the pastor said. “The code never even addresses nonprofits or churches. Code is something that usually has to be amended as times change.”