Sign amendment receives approval
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

A more stringent county sign ordinance was approved, if somewhat reluctantly, last week when the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to limit signs on residential and agriculturally-zoned property to no larger than eight square feet and no taller than five feet.

Board Chairman Kelly Miller made the motion after no other board members motioned to approve the amendment. Clover Hill Supervisor Art Warren seconded Miller's motion.

The county sees the amendment as fixing a poorly written ordinance that allowed county critic C.L. "Slugger" Morrissette to put a 32- square-foot sign on his Beach Road property so motorists could read his criticism of several supervisors and the county administrator as they drove by.

"There's only one way I'll take down my sign, and that's if the U.S. Supreme Court tells me to," Morrissette told this newspaper last month. "The county is trying to take away our free speech, and that's a civil rights violation."

Morrissette was the only speaker at public hearings held by the board and the planning commission. The commission recommended the board not adopt the proposed amendment by a 2-1 vote with one abstention, saying it "would limit free speech."

The board and County Attorney Steve Micas went to considerable lengths to defend the new ordinance, saying the amendment only regulates the size of a sign and not its message. "It's not a constitutional issue," Micas said.

Last June, the Chesterfield Circuit Court wrote that the language of the previous amendment did not prohibit signs that express personal opinions. Chesterfield Circuit Court Judge Cleo E. Powell dismissed a summons and $100 fine that the county issued against Morrissette, but her ruling did not address the question of free speech. Following the ruling, county officials began reviewing the language of the previous ordinance and drafted the amendment so it could withstand legal challenge.

Morrissette told the board last week he had spent $5,000 to go to circuit court. When he was served with the summons, Morrisette said there were 52 other sign violations near his home, and he challenged the supervisors to drive through his neighborhood and see all the sign violations.

Bermuda Supervisor Dickie King called for equal enforcement of the law. "People should be treated fairly, and so if we have to hire more zoning inspectors, we should," he insisted.

Over the past year, Morrissette has been perhaps the harshest critic of the county. His three-minute speeches during numerous public comment periods before the board have been angry and impugned the integrity and intelligence of the supervisors, county administrator and county attorney.

But last December, Morrissette began to make overtures to several supervisors, apologizing to them. "I sometimes get carried away, but I think the county is headed in the right direction," he said before last week's board meeting. Asked "which Slugger Morrissette was going to show up and speak to the board," Morrissette smiled broadly. "I've told Kelly Miller twice that I've wronged him. And I apologized to Dickie [King] and Renny [Humphrey] too. But this amendment is unconstitutional."

A passionate but more subdued and softerspeaking Morrissette addressed the board last week. He spoke his feelings about the amendment without attacking anyone.