Companies that go out of business may be forced to clean up after themselves as the result of a unanimous vote Tuesday night by the Cortez Planning and Zoning Commission to amend the city’s sign regulations.

The commission’s decision, if approved by city council, would force the owners of business that are no longer in operation to remove their business sign within a 30-day period.

"What this amendment will do is allow the city to take action on business owners who are no longer operating but who’s signs are still visible in the area," said Jeff Reinhart, the Cortez Zoning/Building inspector.

"It will force business owners to do away with false advertising and will let visitors know what is really available throughout Cortez," he said.

If the business owners fail to remove their signs after closing and can no longer be contacted, then responsibility for removing the signs would be passed on to the property or building owner, the commissioners said.

Despite bad feelings toward all the sign ordinances, Gloria and Jerry Hall of Jerry’s Sporting Goods (soon to be out of business), said that it is not unreasonable to ask business owners to take down their signs when they close or leave town.

"I see no reason why a business owner would want to leave up their sign," said Jerry Hall. "But I think that these sign ordinances are ruining the town and taking away its individuality."

The original sign ordinances went into effect last December and a number of local businesses have had to change their signs in order to comply.

Prohibited signs are those which are considered obscene, indecent or immoral; have a moving part or are portable; consist of ribbon streamers, strings of light bulbs or spinners, or are of a size, location movement, content, coloring or manner of illumination which may be confused with or construed of as a traffic control device; or which hides the view of any traffic sign or signal.

Planning and Zoning Commissioner Alan Klein responded that 30 days was a fair amount of time and that any longer would give business owners more time to get out of town.

"Business owners are trying to get their store cleaned up and get out of there as quickly as possible anyway," he said.

Other possible amendments to the sign regulations would put limitations on commercial murals painted on the outside of a business establishment as well as the number of signs placed in a store’s window.

"The sign regulations currently allow for unlimited signage if the sign is directly painted on a structure wall or if the sign is mounted less than three inches off the wall’s surface," said Reinhart. "It seems that several downtown businesses have taken advantage of this and we have received a number of comments supporting change."

Bob Wilson, a Planning and Zoning commissioner, said he would like to see a maximum number of signs that could be put up by a business.

Wilson said that, in his opinion, businesses like West Slope Liquors have too many signs in their windows and that it seems like "overkill."

In response to the possible maximum sign regulation, Jim Wilson, owner of West Slope Liquors, said he thought the amendment was too restrictive.