By: Diane Benjamin
Temporary sign regulations will be heard at the Planning Commission August 4th at 5:00.
Below is an excerpt from an email Pam Reece wrote to the council before the July 5th meeting:
Did you catch Uptown Signs are next?
Why was a Public Review process needed? During the meeting there were flimsy references to complaints. The Town did previously provide 1 complaint by FOIA about a sign – see this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/07/16/lets-just-say-avoiding-foia-is-on-purpose/
I received another FOIA yesterday. I FOIA’d the below for an 18 month period of time:
Below is are the complaints I received – none of them have anything to do with temporary signs. Normal is obviously creating a problem they want to fix.
I have another long email from a resident opposed to Normal’s pedestrian stop signs in the middle of the road nobody can see and a request from WGLT for an interview pertaining to solar push-button crossing signals. I didn’t include those since the Planning Commission isn’t hearing testimony on them.
Two of the emails were written to Mayor Koos about signs the writer(s) didn’t want to see in the windows of businesses in Uptown.
The Council should be asking why time is being wasted on temporary signs when the 2015 Supreme Court ruling merely said to treat all signs the same. Normal wants regulations way beyond that.
The sender of these emails were illegally redacted. It doesn’t qualify as private information.
This is an excerpt from a longer email:
Uptown has been referred to as a “Movie Set” and a planned “Utopia”. These redactions intentionally prevent taxpayers from learning who the mystery “Set Designer” truly is. It is obviously not the general public, we just get stuck with the bill!
Franklin, TN has become a suburb of Nashville and the hometown of several country music stars. Many “honky-tonks” located there.
Holland, MI was developed by and is populated by those of Dutch heritage and is a true tourist town (Tulip festival, goods imported from the Netherlands) located near the shores of Lake Michigan.
Comparing Normal to those towns is apples to oranges.
The Town of Normal is a Naperville wannabe. And, yes, it is a “movie set” facade.
I prefer to refer to up/downtown Normal as a “Potemkin Village.” Everyone in my neighborhood agrees to that reference as well.