http://docs.ci.columbia-heights.mn.us/weblink7/DocView.aspx?id=355882

This city had a ban on all LED signs until they wanted to add LED to their new liquor store sign. Now that this has been approved for the city liquor store they are looking at changing this again! But instead of consulting with businesses that this would affect, they are just going about changing things without opening up a dialog with current businesses. There are new and old businesses that are in need of signs and now we are re-writing laws before the last ordinance change has even had time to let the ink dry! If an open and public discussion had been brought up with these businesses before this had happened, we might not have had to re-look at this so soon after the last change was made.

When I brought up the need of a new sign to inform people about community events, the city manager commented that they are looking at this. Then he went on to mention that he really liked the one that St. Anthony has. That is very interesting, since that type of sign is not allowed in Columbia Heights! This city does not allow an LED sign that changes more than once every 10 minutes. Now the city has to change the law again in order to get what they want!

I’m not saying that this would necessarily be a bad thing to change the signage ordinance. What I am trying to point out that if those businesses that would be interested in this type of sign had been consulted originally, we would not have to continue to re-writing this ordinance. Now it looks like we are changing this ordinance to benefit one party-the city. That is illegal.

I would like to see the city of Columbia Heights do something similar but include the ‘Make Heights Your Home’ promotion. This is the loan/grant program that they are starting here that encourages home ownership in Columbia Heights. Combine this with the first time home buyers program, and other loans/grants that available to home buyers we could put together a great package for buyers that are looking. What real estate agent wouldn’t want some help selling a home? It would also be a good time to incorporate links to reputable finance options, banks, mortgage companies. We could also get local hardware stores and paint stores to through in ideas for fixing up any purchases. This would be a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone. It would need to be done soon because some grants will be done by November.

http://www.northmetro.com/events/events-detail.php?intResourceID=5321

Every illustration that was presented by the city should have already been covered by current ordinances so to add another one was redundant.

There were several comments after the meeting that this group was rude and threatening. Apparently, those people have never been to a typical city council meeting. This group was not any different from how council members act toward each other.

No video was made of these meetings. Only minutes were taken and they still have not been posted online as it was said that they would be. So any comments made are how someone perceived the meeting nothing can be backed up by video. I am only aware of one newspaper that was represented at those meetings, the SunFocus. The SunFocus and the Northeaster wrote articles after the meeting. It appears that the Northeaster only received information from the city for their article but the article was pulled from the internet so it cannot be looked at except from a hard copy.

In an email from Scott Clark, he stated that “My quote in the paper, from my perspective, was a misquote.” This was in reference to the comment that those that attended the meeting were ‘screaming’. People were asked to speak up because there was no microphone available to anyone, even to those leading the meeting. Looking at this from that perspective, if people have to speak up to be heard by someone with a hearing problem, those that do not have a hearing problem might perceive this as yelling or screaming.

It was evident to me, that Mr. Clark, towards the end of the meeting had already determined that he was not willing to change his opinion about this item. His body language indicated that he had made up his mind. He actually turned his back on a speaker, crossed his arms and started looking out a window, rather than give a show of being open to comments that others were making.

This show of body language continued on at the city council work session. Even though he was sitting across from me, he refused to look at me during a presentation about withdrawing this ordinance from further discussion. He kept his head turned during his whole presentation so that he did not have to make eye contact with me. I did not know that I was that threatening to him.

As a side note, there is discussion that the EDA/HRA meetings are going to be changed. They are discussing the possibility of changing the structure so that they will be meeting on separate nights, rather than on the same night.