Blue Springs sign rules hurt businesses

To the editor:
I am writing this letter from the position of a business owner. We love Blue Springs. My family’s business has been here for more than 35 years. We live here, and my children go to Blue Springs schools. But the sign laws are killing the small-business people.

The laws for temporary banners have been around awhile, but they are unfair to the small business owners. With the economy as it is, we need all the advertising we can get. I drive down Missouri 7 and U.S. 40 and see tasteful banners and signs. And I understand we don’t want it to get out of hand. But we receive letters threatening legal action, fines and such for having expensive tasteful signs and banners professionally made. They are non-intrusive on our building or in front of our windows.

But tacky Realtor-type signs are in front of gas stations and fast-food restaurants every few feet, tacky painted signs are on windows with shoe polish, and handmade “we buy houses, earn extra cash” signs areat most intersections. I can use shoe polish and put a poorly done, tacky sign on my windows, and that is perfectly legal, but no banners but 60 days a year with a permit. How many more empty strip malls do you want? Give us local business owners a break! Corporate-run businesses seem to keep their signs.

Let us do business, and back off the ridiculous sign restraints before this town becomes a ghost town!