Graduation Banners
Share this post by emailChanges to the temporary signs section of the Gwinnett County Sign Ordinance were approved by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners on March 25, 2008. These changes include adding a section to allow for graduation banners.
Graduation banners may be placed on residentially zoned property. Such banners may be no more than 24 square feet in size and must be maintained in good condition and individually attached to a pole, mast, arm, or other structure. A graduation banner may not be displayed on any lot for more than 60 consecutive days.
• Sign Ordinance Amendment 2008-001 (PDF Document)
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May 7th, 2008 at 4:18 PM
You must be kidding. With Gwinnett’s problems with traffic, illegal immigration, budget, and other issues, they took the time to worry about including graduation banners in a law. Personally, I think graduation banners are tacky and even cheesy (referring to the ones that go on the entrance of subdivisions), but I realize that at that point in your life, kids think that graduating from high school is the most significant thing in life. However, even if they are tacky, do we need a law addressing them? So we need Gwinnett cops and code enforcers wasting time trying to figure out if a banner has been up for 59 days or 61? Just another example of the out of control influence of government in the most menial things in our lives. When are we as citizens going to say enough and tell government to back off?
May 12th, 2008 at 2:16 PM
By MICHAEL PEARSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/24/08
Turns out those celebratory graduation banners that pop up every spring in front of Gwinnett County subdivisions have one teensy, weensy little problem.
Technically, they’re illegal.
Just in time for graduation season, the County Commission is set to address that problem Tuesday with an ordinance that would put proud parents back on the right side of the law. The ordinance would also spare code enforcement officers the awkward task of having to pull down signs blaring such happy news.
“It was a big issue because you had parents who wanted to show pride in their kids and they’re weren’t able to,” said County Commissioner Mike Beaudreau.
The issue caused a ruckus last spring, with rumors of a ban on the signs leading to complaints to the county and eventually an informal suspension of the rules on graduation banners.
Kathy Holland, director of the county planning department’s development division, said parents have always been allowed to post a sign of up to 16 square feet in their own yards celebrating a graduation.
But nothing in the county’s sign ordinance authorizes the display of graduation banners typically found at the entrance to subdivisions, she said.
“What was happening is they were being removed through the typical sign sweeps,” she said.
If approved, the new rules will allow banners of up to 16 square feet for up to 60 days, so long as they’re kept in good repair and don’t encroach on the right of way.
At that size, some neighborhoods could still get into hot water.
While individual signs are by far the most popular, most neighborhood groups go for signs of 15 to 32 square feet, said Nicole Mewhiney, account manager at FastSigns in Norcross.
Jill Stoneberg, a resident of Flowers Crossing at the Mill in Lawrenceville, said her neighborhood association would likely ask that the county increase the size of the banners to make sure her 600-home subdivision can get all of its kids properly listed.
“The smaller the banner, the smaller the fonts,” she said. “It’s hard to read.”
Holland said she realized some groups may not be happy with the size restriction, but said her office tried to remain consistent with what was already contained in the law regarding such signs.
“It’s something we didn’t want to discourage but felt we needed to have some control,” she said.