Millerton American Legion tries to right illegal sign

NORTH EAST — The Town Board and the American Legion Post 178 are in the midst of a conundrum: the Legion installed an illegal sign at its Route 44 post home and it wants the board to make a special allowance to permit it. The board indicated it would like to help, but must stick to the letter of the law. The matter was brought up for discussion at the board’s monthly meeting on Thursday, Oct. 10.

The Legion argues that the sign is there for emergency purposes, which trumps any concerns about spot zoning. The town, for its part, acknowledges the benefits of the sign, but wants to abide by the law.

Post Adjunct Sean Klay spoke on the Legion’s behalf on Oct. 10.

“Talk about the elephant in the room,” he said, trying to lighten the tension. There was a full house that night, much of the audience made up of Legion members and their families. 

Klay said that after much deliberation, the Legion installed the sign, which has LED lights and an electronic, animated message board.

“We have since learned that we erred,” Klay said about not seeking a permit, “it was not intentional.”

He said that the purpose was to have a sign at the post home identifying it as an emergency  shelter, a warming and cooling shelter, a Red Cross satellite location, etc., and to post storm warnings and road closures.

“How does any community get messages out to the public at large?” asked Klay, reminding the room of the power outage of 2003. “The first thing that went was everybody’s cell phones. How do you communicate stuff when social media goes down? When the power goes out, your land lines are down, too.”

So, when the Legion learned last year that the post in Hudson was closing and selling off its property, it decided to buy the sign. 

“This is an investment to make the post that much more of a community investment,” said Klay, noting that the Legion has financial concerns and is constantly looking for ways to invest in and improve its operations. “We recognize we erred. I’m doing a mea culpa.

“We would like to ask the Town Board… to not only help us but to help our community,” he added. “The post paid for it to be installed. We would like it to  be seen as a community asset.”

The issue

Here’s the snag: the Legion is located in the town’s Boulevard District, which is zoned as a unit. The regulations that apply to any business or property in the district apply to all of them. To circumvent that zoning, the town would be spot zoning — which is illegal and prohibited. 

The only other alternative is to rezone the entire district. That would mean that the town would not be able to restrict signs  to be any less than the Legion sign. There is the potential for all the signs in the district, like “for sale” signs, to be just as large and just as bright.

Concerns arose at the meeting that the Route 44 corridor could wind up looking like Sin City.

“The question is whether it should look like Las Vegas or be a little more subtle,” said someone at the meeting. 

“We have no intention of making it look like the Las Vegas strip,” responded Klay. “We’re not that kind of community.”

Another person in the audience said she was OK with the Legion’s sign, noting “the flashing LED lights around the vape shop are far more disturbing.”

Kristen McClune also spoke from the crowd.

“I am generally or formerly anti-LED signs,” she said, “but compared to [the Legion’s] old sign… Now I know it’s a warming/cooling center. I think it’s been a really great asset already. You converted me.”

Town Supervisor George Kaye said the town has to figure out “what is an allowable type of sign under what circumstances, if any.”

The Legion did ask the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for a variance to permit the sign before appearing before the Town Board. That request was denied, as the ZBA told the Legion it was a self-created hardship — meaning the Legion broke the law and can’t expect the ZBA to grant a variance to get around that fact. 

“It would be a crime not to allow the Legion to have the sign for emergency purposes,” said another person from the audience. “It’s way better than what was there before.”

Yet another spoke in support of the sign, saying “it doesn’t seem like it’s bothering the neighbors at all — the neighbors are all closed up at night.”

Klay said the Legion is “totally open” to negotiations on whether the sign should be on all night and other details that may weigh in favor of it being permitted. 

“We don’t want it to  be a net negative,” he said, “we want it to be a net positive.”

Preserving the Boulevard

“How do you prevent someone else in the Boulevard District from putting up a [similar] sign?” asked Councilman Ralph Fedele. “We have to find a logical reason that makes sense. How as a legislative body do we make sense of it?

“Public safety,” said Legion member Bob Jenks. 

“I keep thinking of our comprehensive plan,” said Fedele. “We love our rural environment and don’t want it to look like Las Vegas, and it’s not going to. But how do you pick and choose?”

Planning Board member Bill Kish asked Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky if there is any way for the town to come to a legal agreement with the Legion to use certain kinds of language and not others? Kish said he doubted it.

He was told the sign needs to be content neutral, not religiously based and nondiscriminatory. It was noted there’s an advisory sign committee that has worked on which types of signs should be allowed by the town, and which should not.

For the Legion, it is a First Amendment issue, as the town cannot regulate a sign’s language. Once the sign is up, the Legion has freedom of speech rights to post what it likes. It’s a sticky wicket and reason why animated signs are so problematic.

With that, the Town Board thanked the community for its strong presence at the meeting. Kaye said it will continue to discuss the matter with Replansky and the sign committee in search of resolution.