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NORTON SHORES, Mich. (WZZM) — May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. But a dispute over motorcycle safety signs emerged.
One Norton Shores resident is trying to promote motorcycle safety but he and the city disagree on one detail.
The issue is not the motorcycle lettering; it is about whose name is printed below. There are motorcycle dealers that makes and distributes the signs for free.
Norton Shores Fire Chief Dave Purchase says it is advertising, and says city ordinance does not allow off-premise advertising in the city. He said that if the signs are on private property, they ask residents to take them down, and remove them if the residents do not comply.
The city advertising ordinance reads:
“No temporary sign shall be permitted which directs attention to a business or profession conducted as a permitted use, or to one principal commodity, service or entertainment sold or offered as a permitted use, upon the property where such sign is located.”
Scott Janiga with American Bikers Aiming Towards Education says the ordinance is not black and white, and went to the city for clarification. According to Kidd, a motorcycle rider, if it was advertising, and the dealer wanted to draw attention to themselves, they would have done something like color, or highlighted their section.
Chief Purchase says the city has no problem promoting motorcycle safety, but Purchase says the city ca not allow one business to display its brand around town and not another. He says the city has given residents an alternative for a few years now.
Chief Purchase says there are two main reasons for the ordinance: aesthetics and safety.
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