Maitland signs on to allow events more advertising

Maitland event organizers hope you’ll soon see their newly erected signs throughout the city and that they’ll open up your eyes to all the upcoming goings-on at Lake Lily Park.

On Oct. 26, the Maitland City Council voted to relax its sign code to allow organizations hosting events at Lake Lily Park to post signs at 10 different city-owned sites throughout Maitland to advertise their events.

“The purpose of the ordinance is to take another stab at helping us have a sign code amendment that would allow at least some improved advertising of events and dates that are important to some of the cultural groups around the city,” said Maitland Community Development Director Dick Wells.

Prior to the code change, organizers could only post one sign advertising an event on the park grounds for a maximum of 10 days. That rule, some event hosts said, hurt their event attendance due to lack of exposure since it went into effect in September 2014.

While he hadn’t had a chance to carefully review the new sign code, Maitland Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Aames said “Yay!” to any extra sign allowance for the handful of events the Chamber hosts at Lake Lily each year, including its annual spring art festival and Taste of Maitland.

“I think signage is a vast necessity,” Aames said. “… Unfortunately three of our events have already suffered horribly from [the sign code].”

At most Maitland commuters can expect to see 10 new signs along city roads, each set up on city-owned property. The signs can be a maximum of 24 square feet in surface area, and 7 feet tall. The signs will only be allowed for events hosted at Lake Lily Park, which have been vetted by the city’s permitting process.

“It isn’t a way to get around anything; it’s a way to add a benefit to a benefit that we already have – the ability to use the public park by private organization if they meet certain criteria,” said Maitland City Attorney Cliff Shepard.

Jeff Flowers, the president of Performing Arts of Maitland, says the change is great for organizations that host events at Maitland’s most popular park, but not for the city’s cultural partners – PAM and the Art & History Museums - Maitland – who routinely host events at other venues around the city.

“The two actual cultural partners aren’t being helped at all,” Flowers said. “I understand that this change may help some people, but it doesn’t help us.”

PAM’s performance groups regularly host seasonal concerts at the Maitland Presbyterian Church. And Flowers said attendance to those concerts has been lower since the sign ordinance went into effect, allowing him to only post one sign advertising the event on the church’s property.

“Maitland has some very wonderful arts groups, but it’s difficult to get the word out about them because of all this,” he said.

The newly amended sign code went into effect just in time for the upcoming Maitland Rotary Art Festival, which takes place at Lake Lily on Nov. 13 and 14. The Maitland Rotary Club will now be permitted to advertise the art festival on larger signs throughout Maitland, which organizers hope will help attendance rebound after similar events have seen a slump in turnout over the past year.