Swampscott building inspector: Town bylaw unfair to contractors

SWAMPSCOTT – It’s not even officially election season yet, but disappearing lawn signs are already causing concern in Swampscott as a bylaw prohibiting contractors’ signs on front lawns has prompted complaints from businesses as well as the local building inspector.”Landscapers, painters, contractors should have a right to do it, but the bylaw doesn’t allow it,” said Building Inspector Alan Hezekiah on Friday. “It’s part of my job but a pain in the ass.”The town’s sign bylaw in the zoning code forbids “moveable, portable, sandwich signs” and permits a single contractor sign less than six feet in area to be attached to the building being constructed or renovated. Two real estate signs are allowed per lot, according to the bylaw. The bylaw also allows temporary political signs.Hezekiah said that the bylaw has always been enforced, but enforcement was inconsistent with him working only part-time as the local inspector. Now with two inspectors in the department, he said he has to “formalize the process.” Hezekiah said that when he sees a sign, he starts by moving the sign to the steps and leaving business cards with the homeowner and taping one to the sign. He usually ends up speaking with the business.And enforcement of the bylaw has resulted in growing concern for some contractors, who use the signs as self-promotion and advertising.”Whether it’s the next-door neighbor admiring a job, or say you’re doing several jobs around town – if a contractor has four or five signs up, you know that (he or she) does a good job” and has been recommended, said Michael Bellanti of MJB Home Services. “For most properties (a sign on the building) doesn’t work – houses are set back from the lot, there’s shrubbery and bushes ? it’s an inexpensive and also useful form of advertising.”Other contractors have demonstrated their frustration in other ways. Hezekiah said that one painter started sending him “on a wild goose chase” by reporting signs all over town. Another contractor agreed to take down a sign at one house, then put another sign up three houses away, he noted.General sentiment, according to Hezekiah and Bellanti, was that the bylaw was another hassle – and resulted in wasted resources.”I happen to know and like Alan, it’s a part of his job,” Bellanti said. “But at the same time, it’s a waste of his time.””It could be a full-time job, going around picking up signs,” Hezekiah quipped before unloading signs that had filled the back seat and trunk of his car. “It’s labor intensive and it’s a lot of time and energy to remove something that I believe to be of minimal impact to the quality of life in Swampscott.”And Hezekiah said it made local contractors unhappy.”It gives them that feel that the town is not business friendly, yet another example,” he said. “I think the town is very business friendly ? except for taxes and signs.”Selectman Jill Sullivan said she hadn’t heard complaints about contractors’ signs – either from contractors or from residents who didn’t like looking at contractor’s signs, even when revising the zoning bylaw in 2009.She noted that any citizen could propose a zoning bylaw change.”But if the building inspector is enforcing our bylaw, that’s a good thing,” she said.Executive Director of the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce Leslie Gould said that the chamber had worked with businesses to propose changes to the sign bylaw last year, although it wasn’t submitted in time for Town Meeting. She planned to continue working on the effort.”At that point, (contractor signs) wasn’t a heated point,” she said. “I don’t remember contractors coming in – but doesn’t mean that it’s something that the chamber wouldn’t lobby for if it were fair to all involved.”