DAPHNE, Ala. — Daphne’s planning commission discussed possible solutions to the city’s signage woes, but a viable solution was not agreed upon at the planning commission meeting on Thursday.

The commission began the discussion as a result of the request of a retailer who wishes to place a large sign near the interstate that exceeds the city’s limits in the sign ordinance. The matter has been discussed in depth by the city council and the planning commission.

Thursday, the planning commission reviewed the information compiled by Adrienne Jones, community development director for the city, and came up with a plan to tackle the problem.

Jones prepared a booklet of the information, which contained information the commission asked for at a previous meeting. With a comparison of the existing sign provisions for the two overlay districts that are already within the city, a listing of parcels that are in the I-10 corridor and information recently obtained from the developer working with the retailer who requested the exemption to the sign ordinance detailing why a large sign was needed and results of a sight line study in hand, the planning commission began to debate what it could and could not do regarding the ordinance.

Jones also provided an outline for a new ordinance to create a new overlay district, if the planning commission and the city council opted to create one.

Commissioner Larry Chason asked his fellow commissioners where they even wanted to start, and Councilwoman Cathy Barnette shared a letter from Councilman August Palumbo who stated the commission had no right to make a recommendation.

“This matter has not ever been discussed in any city council meeting. It is not within the jurisdiction of the planning commission to propose a business district. Any matter such as this should be initiated by the council, which has the sole legal jurisdiction to create such districts,” Palumbo said.

Mayor Fred Small disagreed.

“I think any overlay district that has ever been done, this body here is the one that has done it. I really think, not trying to take anything away from the council whatsoever, but I think we have the time and we have all of the information here that we can get at least a framework to send to the council. Not that we want to create the whole ordinance for them,” Small said.

Barnette said the issue was not whether the planning commission had the jurisdiction to deal with the matter, but whether the council was interested in creating an overlay district at all.

The commission agreed to consider the information compiled and discuss it at the meeting next month and invite members of the city council to come and be part of the discussion.

Commissioner Victoria Phelps said something needs to be done so the planning commission and the council are not blindsided by developers.

“Looking at the whole corridor, it is a way to help keep us from being, almost at times held hostage as each one of these developers come in and they all want a 120-foot sign,” Phelps said. “By looking at this as an economic producing zone and establishing some guidelines that we can all recommend to the council, but it allows for some consistency so we don’t get pressured to do something we really aren’t comfortable with for the types of things that we hold dear to Daphne.”

The planning commission opted to hold off making any decisions until a later date.

“We will forward to the city council some type of official action that we feel the need to come up with a recommendation for signage along I-10 and that we want to begin to prepare that recommendation, and once we complete it we will vote on it and forward it to the council for their consideration,” Chason said.

Resident Kevin Spriggs said the governing bodies of Daphne should leave economic matters to business people.

“I think in listening to your discussion it is really hard, and I think government planning fails when you try to create one set of rules and apply it to something as complex as economic situations. Let business people and developers bring the ideas in here…” Spriggs said.

In other news, Thursday, the planning commission:

r Voted 6-0 to approve a replat of property included in the Renaissance Center at Highway 90 and Frederick Boulevard.

The replat involved moving a center property line so the property could be sold.

The motion was approved to grant the exemption request for the transference of lines between Lot 8 and Lot 9.

r Voted 6-0 to approve the return of a bond to Richard Davis when the work on his property is completed and approved by public works director Richard Johnson.

The necessary work on the property is already underway, and the property owner has agreed to allow the $10,000 bond to be used to pay for the public works department to complete the work. The remainder of the funds will be returned to the property owner once the work is completed.

The commission did not approve the return of the money immediately, however.

Small made a motion to allow planning staff to release the balance of the funds, if any, once work is complete on the draining project.