Business owners in Plainsboro are about to get a little bit of help from their government.
According to officials, changes to the township’s sign ordinance would allow business owners to place “open” signs, or those of similar size, outside of their businesses to draw customers.
Proposed changes will head to the Planning Board for review on Monday, August 15. According to Mayor Peter Cantu, the signs would not be permitted to be more than two square feet in size.
In April business owners asked Mayor Peter Cantu during a Plainsboro Business Partnership meeting about various ways to help them attract business. During the meeting, signage issues dominated most of the business owners’ concerns.
The owner of the Plainsboro Pharmacy told Cantu that customers tell her they couldn’t find parking. She said she tells them there is parking in the rear, but customers would not know if they did not ask. She said she approached the developer about fixing the signage problem, but the developer told her that the township did not allow the signage.
Business owners also said that customers do not know the names of the business plazas in town and asked that the town consider signage on the main walkways of the plaza to allow people to see what is inside each plaza.
At the July 27 meeting, Cantu told the Township Committee that the Planning Board’s Master Plan Subcommittee positively recommended the proposed changes to the ordinance to allow for small informational signs.
“We’ve been approached by a number of businesses about this,” said Cantu. “Principally, these would be ‘open for business’ signs.” The current ordinance is “fuzzy” about what is permitted in terms of business signs, and the ordinance would clarify which types of signs are allowed.
