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Liz Walker has owned the Elizabethan Gallery at Jefferson Highway and Government Street for 20 years, and she’s one of the most vocal supporters of the Mid City area’s resurgence.

Part of that effort is the Government Street Urban Design Overlay District, passed last year by the Metro Council, which seeks to turn the Government Street corridor into a more pedestrian-friendly shopping district.

The UDOD, among other things, places restrictions on the types of signs allowed along Government from Interstate 110 to Jefferson Highway. The new regulations approved by the Metro Council went into effect on Sept. 1, although signs in use before then are grandfathered in, so Government won’t look much different any time soon. But some say the city could start making a difference by more stringently enforcing the citywide sign ordinance that’s been in place since 1994. Walker says there are a number of illegal signs along Government that have been there for years.

“I’m a small-business person,” she says. “I believe in Mid City, I believe in what we’re doing. It would be nice if somebody with some clout at the governmental level would jump on board.”

Neal Bezet is a complaint resolution manager with the city-parish government, and it’s primarily his job to handle violations of the city’s 43-page sign ordinance. He has only has one employee, a college student whose job is to look for illegal signs. Bezet argues the city does a good job staying on top of sign violations with the help of the Department of Public Works barricade crew, who are also authorized to pick up signs, and Bezet pitches in himself.

“I’ll be driving down the road and see [a small illegal sign] stuck up somewhere, and I’ll pick it up,” Bezet says. Among the most common problem signs are the small ones with the two little metal posts that stores will sometimes put in the front yard when there’s a sale. Signs tacked to telephone poles are also illegal. The portable arrow signs with the light bulbs and removable letters are only permitted twice a year, for 30 days at a time, to promote a special event, he says. If a business closes, the property owner is supposed to take the business’ sign down. Permanent signs in use before the ordinance went into force in 1994 are exempt.

The best way to report an illegal sign, Bezet says, is to contact the city-parish’s 311 call center, which allows the caller to create a record and check on the status of their complaint. If a complaint checks out, the property owner will get a letter giving him 10 days to change or remove the offending sign. Usually, the owner complies; often people don’t even know the rules. Bezet says he’s always willing to work with someone who needs a little extra time.

If someone doesn’t cooperate, the matter goes to the parish attorney. On the rare occasions when the issue goes to court, the judge has discretion to decide the amount of the fine, Bezet says. In an amendment to the sign ordinance, the minimum fine was increased from $25 to $250, and each day the sign stays up is considered a separate violation.

“That will probably help,” Bezet says. “Unless you can affect their wallets, they don’t care.”

“Enforcement has always been the issue,” Samuel Sanders, head of the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, says of the city’s sign ordinance. “There are a serious number of violations along the [Government Street] corridor.” Sanders says the hope was that, with the new standards in place, there might be a bit more scrutiny. His organization plans to take a year to see how the city enforces the new rules, and then go back to the Metro Council in September 2008 if needed.

David Jacobs

OUT OF BUSINESS: There are no signs at the site of this former Blockbuster Video on Government Street. According to new regulations approved in September by the Metro Council, the property owner is supposed to remove signs from a business that has closed.

The Redevelopment Alliance offers matching grants of up to $3,000 for business owners along the Government Street corridor who would like to improve the look of their properties to meet the new design guidelines. That might include replacing a pole sign with a pedestrian-level monument sign, improving lighting or landscaping, or restoring a building’s façade. More information is available at midcityredevelopment.org.