Friday, October 11, 2019

Dunwoody asks legal council, When is a sign a sign and could it be considered public art? Can art be regulated by calling it a sign?


If bogus signs were installed on Dunwoody streets, would they be illegal signage or could they be considered public art? When public art is installed but it looks like a sign, could it be confused for a sign and therefore subject to the sign ordinance?

The Dunwoody City Council is being petitioned by the Create Dunwoody group (Arts Council) to define the difference of art vs signage as the last attempt fell flat.  

Interesting true story from the past, back in 2012 I noticed several adopt a road signs around Dunwoody from DeKalb County honoring "Kramer" (from the Seinfeld tv show) and I wasn't sure if they were real or fiction? 

I didn't really care one way or another but as it turned out there once was a resident do gooder, filled out the application as Kramer to clean Mt. Vernon, did the work and got the sign.  That person moved away, stopped cleaning Mt. Vernon road and the sign came down.  When a newer sign popped up near the JCC at that time, I investigated and it was deemed unauthorized and even fraudulent (possible public art?).


Can you guess which sign above is not in Dunwoody?

The first sign from the left was newly installed in 2012 and was located just to the North of the JCC entrance on Tilly Mill; there was no permit attached to the back and the sign was removed as possibly being bogus.  The middle sign comes directly from the TV Show, Seinfeld where Kramer joins the “adopt a highway” program, but his methods are a little unorthodox.  The third sign was located on Mount Vernon, East of Chamblee Dunwoody Rd across from the Dunwoody Farmhouse and it had a permit sticker identifying it was authorized and installed in September 2008.  Though one time legal the adopted parent of the road had moved away, therefore the sign was removed.

The Create Dunwoody group wants to start doing murals and art installations and needs some clarification and hopefully, we can do that soon.

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