VILLA PARK : Merchants Want Liberal Sign Rules

Merchants may soon be allowed for the first time to display their windows neon signs that say “open.”

“That’s pretty liberal,” said Jim Brodsky, owner of the Villa Park Pharmacy and board member of the Fountain and Villa Park Merchant’s Assn. But Brodsky is pushing for more--the right to have two signs, not one.

The City Council on Sept. 28 will hold a public hearing to change its 25-year-old sign ordinance, which prohibits all neon and restricts the size, color and shape of signs.

Proposed changes include allowing the city’s 44 businesses to use up to 50% of their window space for signs, taller letters on roof signs (a foot instead of 10 inches high) and colors no longer restricted to yellow backgrounds and rust or brown lettering.

“It’s night and day,” Brodsky said about the proposed changes.

Brodsky said he will also ask the City Council to allow two neon signs and the right to advertise services such as faxing and haircuts.

Brodsky said the advertisements would attract more business and not detract from the look of the city’s only shopping center, located on the northeast corner of Wanda Road and Santiago Boulevard.

Councilman Bob Patchin agreed: “I have no problem with a neon rose in the flower shop, the words drugs or sodas in the drugstore, a pictorial coffee cup or the word coffee at the coffee shop. . . . I will support generic art or product lines or shop names in neon. The code we have had is extremely restrictive.”

Updating the sign ordinance would keep the town’s businesses competitive, City Manager Fred Maley said.