County commissioners ponder relaxing billboard regulations

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners is considering a change to its sign regulations.

At the board’s Feb. 9 meeting, the commissioners were approached about potential changes to the county’s unified development ordinance (UDO) in order to relax some of the restrictions surrounding signage.

“The initial sign ordinance was written in 1987 and progressive development in the county has led to signage requests that are not allowable under our current restrictions, which has led us to begin the research for the proposed changes,” planning director Kim Heinzer said.

The changes would allow for some of the larger businesses within the county to have more leniency with the signage and to “allow for more proportional fits related to projects, while balancing the promotion and protection of the communities at large.”

“This is an important part of our ordinances,” chairman Darrell Frye said. “A business without a sign is a sign of no business. They are important for getting a variety of messages out.”

Some of the biggest changes proposed by the planning board include the allowance of up to two billboards, one on each side, within a single 2,500-foot segment of roadway and a restriction on billboards requiring them to be at least 300 feet away from any from residentially zoned properties.

“We don’t have a lot of billboards in Randolph and we have considerable areas that are not gonna have billboards,” Frye said. “The terrain, woods, property, business, whatever, it’s just not going to be conducive.”

Commissioner Hope Haywood said: “I don’t think the goal is to limit businesses. I think it’s just to keep the rural nature of Randolph County.”

Applications for additional signage or signage outside of the UDO specifications would also be considered for approval by the planning board, similar to rezoning requests where the planning board makes a decision and appeals can be heard by the commissioners.

However, due to concerns expressed by some of the commissioners regarding the perceived restrictiveness of the proposed requirements, the item was tabled to next month’s meeting.

“This is still considerably more restrictive than the state requirements,” Frye said. “Farmers and older adults use land leases for billboards to subsidize retirement pay or aging pay and I think that is a little too restrictive.”

Some of the changes the commissioners suggested were reducing the distance between billboards to 1,000 feet, reducing the required distance from residentially zoned properties to 150 feet and allowing for more than one sign on the frontage of single lots.

“I want our ordinances to be friendly for the property owners who might need or want the income, and friendly for whatever businesses that want to do business in Randolph County,” vice chair Kenny Kidd said.

Personnel policy updates

The board also approved revisions to its personnel policy, which was last updated in 2016.

“This has been in the works for over a year,” human resources director Jill Williams said. “We have used the services of Teague Campbell Employment Law Firm to review our policies and help us see what needs to be updated, what needs to be revised, what needs to be added.”

Revisions include adding new federal policies to the manual, including the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections Act, language clarifications, the implementation of well-being leave, implementation of proficiency pay, as well as other various changes.

“We are well due to get this policy updated and plan to come to you much sooner next time,” Williams said.

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet March 2.