Hello, Bobbie

Please forward the following request for a ‘Sign of Community Interest’ designation to the City Commission. Thanks.

Sincerely,

John

John Wysocki, President
Artful Marketing LLC
P.O. Box 723, Lawrence, KS 66044
Tel 785.865.4254
www.artfulmarketing.biz

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To: City Commission, City of Lawrence

Request for ‘Sign of Community Interest’ designation

Dear Commissioners:

We wish to have a sign approved as a ‘Sign of Community Interest.’

As the presenter of a relatively new series of art fairs, which are called ‘Lawrence ArtMarkets’ and start on June 23, we wish to use a temporary sign (a freestanding banner) during each occurrence of the Lawrence ArtMarket. Since the art fairs take place once per month on every fourth Saturday between June-September 2007 on city property at the Lawrence Visitor Center, under the current code we would not be able to display our banner other than during the first art fair since the code restricts the permit for such a sign to a 30-day period. The commonly accepted interpretation of the phrase ‘30-day period’ appears to be 30 consecutive days rather than 30 separate days.

In 2005, which is when we first held our Lawrence ArtMarkets, we requested that our sign be approved as a ‘Sign of Community Interest’ and received such approval. This was after submitting a request to the Sign Code Board of Appeals for an amendment to the City Code for Lawrence for Temporary Signs to enable us to display our sign during all five occurrences of our event, which was subsequently denied.

We are submitting this request for our sign to be approved as a ‘Sign of Community Interest’ under the provision of section 5-705, SAME; EXEMPTIONS, (G). That our art fairs occur at one of the city’s landmark properties – the Lawrence Visitor Center – should be a consideration since we would surely be deemed to be promoting the ‘attraction of tourists and visitors to the community’ as stated in 5-701, PURPOSE; and, surely, if the city is allowing its property to be rented for personal or public uses, as it is in our case, some provision should be made for signage to be displayed for such uses.

FYI: Attached are a copy of the design of our 2007 sign along with our previously approved 2005 sign, and a plan of the area in which the sign is generally to be located. Our website also features photos of our very first ArtMarket in May 2005, including a photo of our sign, which may be accessed from this link: http://www.wysocki.co.uk/LawrenceArtMarket/media.html.

We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Sincerely,

John Wysocki, President
Artful Marketing LLC
P.O. Box 723, Lawrence, KS 66044
Tel 785.865.4254
www.artfulmarketing.biz

Lawrence ArtMarket:

John Wysocki, Director

Paul and Deb Chaussee, Asst. Directors