The Board of Selectmen will disallow the display of all public signs at the new Town Hall and Vine Cottage—a practice that planning officials have spoken out against—following a new policy adopted July 21.
In making the change, the selectmen said they wished to preserver the aesthetics of the newly renovated Town Hall facility.
“I love free speech, I love communications, I love transparency, but I don’t want to see our brand new Town Hall cluttered with signs,” Selectmen Nick Williams said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.
The policy change extends to the busy Vine Cottage corner, which had absorbed public signs during the Town Hall construction project, and which the board acknowledged was another prime location for displaying public communications.
Citing clutter in front of the newly constructed Town Hall, Williams, Selectman Beth Jones, and First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said they felt the Internet and other locations around town provided ample opportunity to inform the public of news and events.
“We’ve got a beautiful Town Hall. We certainly allow and afford a lot of opportunity for people to get signs out, and with the internet being so prominent” there is ample opportunity for the public to get their message across, Mallozzi said.
Signs can be displayed at the Train Station on Elm and corner of Farm and South.
Prior to the Town Hall construction project, signs had been allowed on Town Hall property if they had met certain criteria and were approved by the Board of Selectmen.