By Julie Manganis
PEABODY — Three businesses are appealing a recent decision by the city's Zoning Board of Appeals that would require them to shut down their electronic signs.
The signs have been a controversial issue in Peabody where city councilors unanimously voted last summer to have the building inspector issue enforcement orders against the three businesses using the signs: North Shore Podiatry, The Mortgage Specialist and the Sylvan Street Grille.
A lawyer for the city said during that hearing that the signs violate the city's sign ordinance because of their brightness. Councilors said the signs are unattractive and distract drivers.
Building commissioner Kevin Goggin sent the businesses cease-and-desist letters last summer ordering them to stop using the signs and remove them.
The businesses appealed but earlier, this month, the city's Zoning Board of Appeals voted to uphold Goggin's order.
Last week, Sylvan Street's owners filed an appeal in Salem Superior Court; the owners of North Shore Podiatry and The Mortgage Specialist filed their appeals Monday.
Lawyers for the businesses are asking a judge to overrule the ZBA, arguing that the board's ruling is unlawful and beyond its authority.
They also want a judge to rule that the city's sign ordinance is unenforceable because it is too vague and gives too much leeway to the building inspector to make a subjective judgment about a sign. It also includes contradictory language, argue lawyers John Keilty and Robert Holloway.
"The whole sign ordinance is vague on its face," said Keilty, who represents North Shore Podiatry and The Mortgage Specialist.
Holloway, who represents the Sylvan Street Grille, said his client has had the sign in place since 2003 and he's not aware of any complaints.
He argues that the city ordinance specifically allows message board signs.
The city's ordinance bars "any signs displaying flashing or intermittent lights of changing degrees of intensity," with an exception for signs displaying time or temperature as long as it doesn't create a public safety or traffic hazard in the judgment of the building inspector.
That, argue the lawyers, is "impermissibly vague" and gives the inspector far too much discretion.
Another section of the ordinance allows for "a changeable message, such as those announcing special events or sales."
They say their clients were all given permits for the signs by the city and that it's now unfair for a different building inspector to make subjective judgments about signs that have been deemed in compliance in the past.
