Gwinnett Daily Post

NORCROSS - City council members voted unanimously Monday night to amend the city's temporary sign ordinance. Before the change, the ordinance allowed a temporary sign or banner to be placed on a site once every 6 months. City Planner Howard Koontz said Monday that that policy was a problem for sites on which more than one business was located.

Koontz also said that, during holidays, enforcement of the temporary sign ordinance is lifted, giving business owners the opportunity to display holiday-themed or religious-themed messages without restriction. Business owners had begun using those periods of leniency to display commercial messages, according to Koontz, so the parameters of the ordinance regarding holiday leniency had to be tightened.

City-sponsored and sanctioned events are exempted from temporary sign regulations in order to allow promotion of civic events.

Budget amendments OK'd for fire station purchase

Council members approved a $300,000 budget amendment paving the way for the city's purchase of Fire Station No. 1 at 75 College Street. Once the station is purchased, it will immediately be turned over to the Norcross DDA. The DDA will have a maximum of two years to pay the city back, without interest.

"It will enhance our tax base" as well as the quality of the adjoining Lillian Webb Park project, according to city manager Warren Hutmacher.

The city's new fire station on Lawrenceville Street opened Jan. 19.