By Chris Tucker

Flashing electronic business signs were the main focus of a public hearing on proposed changes to the Kitsap County sign code this week.

The 32-page proposed ordinance is meant to provide clarity regarding the size and type of signs that may be used and to provide predictability and flexibility in the sign permitting process. Economic, safety, and aesthetic aspects of signs are also covered by the ordinance.

According to the draft, electronic signs would be prohibited outside the county’s Urban Growth Areas and in all residential zones with exceptions for authorized school, church and government use.

The sign code does not apply to incorporated cities.

Digital messages would have to remain static for a minimum of three seconds and would be required to have a one-second-long transition time between changes.

Commissioner Robert Gelder noted that trends in signs have changed over the years.

“It’s important to have flexibility as business owners continue to try to reach out to the market and take that opportunity to actually distinguish themselves from others,” Gelder said.

Ron Gillespie was less concerned with economics and worried electronic signs would create a “visual nightmare.”

He was one of eight people who spoke about the proposed changes during the public hearing.

Gillespie said churches, schools and government agencies should not be exempted from using electronic signs in residential areas.

“They should be the exemplars on which the community can follow,” he said of those groups. “This is the pure example of ‘Do what I say and not what I do.'”

If the county cannot properly regulate the few currently existing electronic signs, he said, “How will we do it when everyone and their dog have one? Each business will try to outdo the next and push the envelope constantly. If we adopt this policy we are truly opening Pandora’s box to a multitude of technology changes.”

Billboard representative Rob LaGrone, with CBS Outdoor advertising, spoke in favor of LED electronic signs.

He said his company’s nine outdoor signs in the county had a 75 to 100 percent occupancy rate.

“What it’s telling us very clearly is that the business community … they need some more supply (of billboards),” LaGrone said.

Electronic display billboards provide a ‘multiplier effect,'” he said, since the message can be easily changed, thus decreasing the need to build additional billboards.

“You effectively get more signage without needing to build more structures. And that’s very important as the market grows,” he said.

LaGrone said images on his non-electronic billboards were rotated every eight seconds.

“We don’t use flashing or animation on signs showing to highways … lots of jurisdictions are outlawing animation and flashing as potential distractors.”

Joyce Merkel viewed electronic signs as “clutter.”

“You may think that a sign that changes every three seconds is not a ‘flashing sign,’ but I certainly do,” she stated in a letter to the commissioners.

She cited the Parr Ford and Central Kitsap High School signs as an examples.

“When combined with a multitude of other signs that change constantly you create an overall impact of a flashing town,” she said.

Jim Sommerhauser agreed with Merkel and said the electronic signs could be as distracting as reading a phone text message while driving.

He said that the signs would distract drivers from “the job of driving that 4,000 to 7,000-pound vehicle down the road.”

“If you look at an average speed of 30 miles an hour — which would be a pretty good average for Silverdale — you cover 760 feet in 15 seconds,” he said. That would be an opportunity for the signs to change four times.

“We are not trying to encourage people to read advertising while they’re driving. We’re trying to encourage people to pay attention to driving.”

The county took no action and invited the public to send written comments to commissioners by 5 p.m. Oct. 13.