BRATTLEBORO — The Selectboard has approved a new ordinance designed to ensure pedestrians passage on Brattleboro’s sidewalks and offer a simplified, enforceable permitting process for sandwich boards.
“We’ve talked about this issue for two years or more. This ordinance is fair to pedestrians, and businesses, and is understandable,” said Selectboard member Martha O’Connor after the second reading of the new sidewalk ordinance April 20.
According to Town Manager Barbara Sondag, the ordinance allows sandwich boards on sidewalks providing that pedestrians, wheelchairs, and scooters are left with 42 inches of free passage.
The ordinance, approved with a 3–2 vote, shifts the permitting process and responsibility from the Planning Commission to an appointed administrative officer.
Business owners wanting to place a sign on someone else’s property need permission from the property owner. Businesses that violate the ordinance will be subject to fines and possible confiscation of the sign.
Building a Better Brattleboro Director Andrea Livermore presented suggestions complied by BaBB’s board.
Suggestions included requiring 48 inches of free passage to accommodate larger mobility scooters and removing a restriction that the sign can have text only on one side
Livermore suggested limiting one sign per address “to keep downtown vibrant but not cluttered,” she said.
Livermore said she spent the day downtown with a measuring tape and was confident business owners could easily maintain 48 inches of clear passage.
The board voted to amend the ordinance to include BaBB's suggestions.
Musa Alici, chef and owner of Alici’s Bistro at 51 Harris Place, behind the Gibson-Aiken Center, endorsed the ordinance.
“It is outstanding,” he said.
Alici experienced difficulty and frustration trying to draw customers to his side-street bistro. In February, the Selectboard denied his permit to place a sandwich board at the corner of Main Street and Harris Place.
Alici asked the article requiring permission to put a sign on another’s property be deleted, a provision that would require permission from either TD Bank or Fairpoint Communications to return his sandwich board to the corner.
Not everyone received the sidewalk ordinance with open arms.
Selectboard Vice-Chair Dora Bouboulis and member Daryl Pillsbury voted against the ordinance.
“Has someone talked to the business owners to get their feedback? I’ve only heard Musa in favor of it,” Bouboulis said.
“What are the implications of removing the power of legislating signage from the planning commission?” she asked.
Bouboulis said she wanted BaBB to work on the sign issue with other pertinent boards, specifically looking at wayfinding signs to direct pedestrians, a topic the board has talked about implementing for years.