With a renovated and expanded Town Hall re-opening and increased foot traffic expected at 77 Main St. as more municipal departments move back in through the summer, officials are opening the question of whether promotional signs should be allowed on its front lawn.
A drop in requests to place lawn signs out front of Town Hall in recent months may be attributed to the recent construction there, and landscaping plans call for a more park-like feel that may not lend itself to signage, officials said Tuesday during the Board of Selectmen meeting.
Though rules are in place about just what events or causes can be promoted on Town Hall’s front lawn (local), what types of organizations it’s meant for (mostly nonprofit) and what styles of signs may be used, the town has never set a cap on how many signs can be put there at one time, officials say.
A landscaping plan for the newly renovated, expanded Town Hall that’s been supported by the New Canaan Beautification League. The nonprofit organization is willing to pay up to $50,000 to see the plan materialize. Specs by Keith Simpson Associates
“My personal opinion is that we have a beautiful Town Hall—Keith Simpson and the Beautification League are doing a wonderful job in designing a landscape,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said during the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “I envision more of a park-ish [area] than it was before. I think that’s a good use for that—not a park in the sense of a park, but just a place to relax with benches and that kind of thing. Personally, I think signs may detract from that.”
The front lawn of Town Hall on June 16, 2015. Credit: Michael Dinan
Ultimately, officials decided to wait at least two weeks—soliciting opinions from residents, including those volunteers serving on the Town Hall Building Committee—before making a decision.
Tom Stadler, administrative officer in the first selectman’s office, said New Canaan has designated places where people can place posters or signs, such as the fence on Park and Elm by the train station, and (for high school sports) the southwest corner of South Avenue at Farm Road. A former policy saw each applicant who wanted a sign placed out from of Town Hall come to the get approval from Mallozzi individually, Stadler said.
“That was a little much, so we crafted some rules of the road,” he said.
Those include rules governing A-frame signs, disallowing commercial signs, limiting how long a single sign can be up and ensuring that any organization promoting an event is locally based or serves New Canaanites. Since construction fencing went up around Town Hall last year, signs have been placed on the lawn in front of Vine Cottage.
Selectman Nick Williams said the question of whether to open up the front lawn of Town Hall to signs raises questions of aesthetics and communications as well as free speech. He asked how long New Canaan had allowed signs on the front lawn of Town Hall (uncertain) and what other towns do (Darien, for example, has a rather inconspicuous board with lettering that’s set at some distance from Town Hall there).
Stadler said that, generally, New Canaan has seen two or three signs out front of Town Hall at one time, though there’s nothing in the policy now that would prevent more.
“It’s not like there are 3,000 signs out there,” Mallozzi said.
He added, “You cannot have 30 signs up in one month,” to which Stadler replied: “If you have 30 requests, you might. We never put a cap on the amount of signs. We have had six to eight at one time.”
Selectman Beth Jones noted that at NewCanaanite.com’s June 5 coffee, several people raised the idea that the front lawn of Town Hall would be a gathering place for the community.
“If we want to embrace that idea, it seems to me that it would be more aesthetically pleasing to not have a bunch of signs,” Jones said.
She added that it’s nice for local groups such as the Kiwanis Club (with its Zerbini Family Circus, coming up June 19 and 20) and Summer Theatre of New Canaan to create a visible place that lets locals know when important fundraisers and events are happening. If it’s possible to get those events listed on the municipal website’s calendar as well as the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce calendar, then “maybe we don’t really need it on Main Street,” she said.
A few signs on the front lawn (like the old United Way tally sign of yore) makes Town Hall a more vibrant, connected place. The comparison to Darien’s Town Hall is silly; no one walks past there, and it’s not downtown. And the website alternative is off, as well; more people drive and walk by Town Hall every day than search out the website in a month. I look at this landscaping plan, a front lawn seemingly devoid of shady trees, and wonder why we want to turn a shaded place with benches and local civic group signs into a relatively antiseptic, too-pristine, manicured spot. Don’t suck the life out of this downtown “town square” — keep the signs, within limits if you must, and have a year-long calendar of signs that groups can “sign up” for.