BY ELENI HIMARAS
reporter@ltview.com
As promised last year, Lakeway is working to revamp its strict sign ordinance, which many say is scaring off new businesses and hurting those already in existence.

 City staff has already held focus groups with the real estate and commercial communities and is now turning to technology to get resident input. By visiting tinyurl.com/b8yu2g or following the link from the homepage of cityoflakeway.com, residents may participate in a 64-question electronic survey about their preferences for signs in the city.
“We’ve seen it used as a tool by other planners, mostly for mixed-use or new urbanist-type developments,” said Building and Development Services Director Shannon Burke. “It’s just a tool for getting an idea of what people prefer and a great tool to put it on the web so you get a wider audience.”
The questionnaire covers several issues including font, color, masonry and logos that concern a variety of signs including business, real estate, open house, development, temporary, and human-held. All questions have accompanying photos, which give participants a real-life example of the type of sign referenced.
Burke said the survey was designed on a premise of a graduated progression of leniency, which begins with images of signs with the most stringent restrictions and ends with the most lenient.
“By doing it in a series of questions, we can then kind of track where most people feel about that sign. They get to a point where they say ‘this isn’t Lakeway anymore, this isn’t appropriate for our community,’” Burke said.
He planned to present the findings from the first two focus groups at this week’s Zoning and Planning Commission and allow members of the groups to put their input in as well.
“I’m going to have about a dozen (concerns) from the commercial group and six or seven for the real estate group,” he said. “It’s hard to say what their primary thing is.”
He hopes the meeting will reveal what focus group members feel are the biggest concerns. ZAPCO members can let those concerns marinate until their March meeting when Burke plans to present the findings from the resident survey and ensuing focus group.
“The council will then have the month of March to think about the ordinance in the context of public opinion,” he said. “They can see where they want to come down and give me a specific direction.”
Burke and Deputy City Manager Chessie Blanchard have been spearheading the survey, which they plan to leave on the Web site until Feb. 25.
“We’ve had 128 responses so far,” Blanchard said of the survey that has been up since Jan. 27.
The only personal information participants are asked to give is their address so that city staff can see whether responses are coming from visitors or residents. It takes five to 10 minutes to complete.
Blanchard said that the results are not yet conclusive as they have not filtered residents from nonresidents but said she believes the responses tend to lean towards more restrictive regulations.
For more information contact Burke at 314-7540 or Blanchard at 314-7527.