By Eleni Himaras
reporter@ltview.com
Lakeway’s 62-page sign ordinance is one of the most stringent in the state, and local business owners say it is driving sales tax dollars to other cities.

Building Development & Services Director Shannon Burke, along with the Zoning and Planning Commission, gave them a chance to voice these concerns at the ZAPCO meeting Wednesday morning. Burke is working to make the language of the ordinance user-friendlier and more straightforward and is reviewing its stringent content.
“We’ve lost no end in national clients,” said Buck DeBree, owner of the Lakeway Commons shopping center. “If they can’t use their colors or their logos, they are going to Bee Caves or somewhere else.”
The issue of logos, which are not allowed within the sign ordinance, and bright colors were a frequent theme in the frustration of the 20 or so business owners at the meeting. They also asked the board to consider loosening the restrictions on temporary signage for special events, off-premise signage, temporary open-house directional signs, and permanent signage for civic organizations.
“I think there’s some feeling out there that we’re anti-business, when all we’re trying to do is enforce what is written,” ZAPCO Chairman Dave Taylor.
Many in the room felt that the nature of the ordinance was harmful to businesses and laughed when Taylor referenced the part of the ordinance that states, “The sign should not visually dominate the structure to which it belongs or call undue attention to itself.”
Calls of, “Isn’t that the point?” flooded from the crowd.
“I think RR 620 is a business district. We’re not talking Lakeway Boulevard or a residential district,” said Jaime Bush, owner and manager of Point of Origins. “I, daily, get people saying, oh my God, you’ve been there for 15 years, I had no idea.”
She said her inability to put a sign out on RR 620 leading people back into her shop makes it hard to compete with other businesses in the greater Lake Travis area.
“I know this is an issue of finding the signs distasteful, but I would suggest that boarded up businesses and space for lease signs are far more distasteful.”
Realtors also said the strict sign requirements were making it hard to have their Lakeway developments compete with others in the area.
“It is our worst performing community out of our ten in the Greater Austin area,” said Roland Ramirez of Ryland Homes, which owns a 209-home development in Lakeway. “We have no opportunity along RR 620 to point people into our subdivision. “
At the end of the meeting, the commission thanked all the business owners for their input and announced they would be creating a focus group to review the ordinance. Several members in attendance volunteered to be on the group, which the ZAPCO would like to see representing small businesses, service organizations, commercial real estate, residential real estate, concerned citizens, and the ZAPCO itself.
“I’m happy to let them hear these comments,” Burke said of the meeting. He had spoken with many of the concerned citizens in the room prior to the meeting and was pleased to see the groups coming together to work out a compromise.
“Half the battle right now is to reformat it and make it easier to understand,” he said.
Burke hopes to have the focus group together before the new year but is unsure of the exact timeline given peoples’ time constraints around the holidays.
Those interested in being in the focus group contact Shannon Burke at shannonburke@cityoflakeway.com or 314-7542.