To the Editor:
On or about Aug. 16, 2023, the date of a Guilderland Zoning Board of Appeals legal announcement in your paper for a retail applicant seeking a larger store sign than code permits, I observed a truck-mounted, LED-lit outdoor advertising display at the parcel of land on the opposite corner from the pending applicant, at a site where a contentious ZBA hearing had prohibited marquee advertising.

While the ZBA ruled the marquee advertising was prohibited, what happened next could have been predicted based upon your Dec. 9, 2022 reporting,  “Guilderland Town Board takes up issue of painted signs.”

There was a town board discussion last December of a different Route 20 business sign causing town residents to question if there were code violations.

[Guilderland Supervisor Peter] Barber said, “Now, is this a code provision? Yes, it’s in the code. But should it be there or should [it] be drafted slightly differently?”

Barber went on, “He could take that same sign that’s painted on the building. He could take a picture of it. Take it to an expensive digital printer, print it out, and stick it right back on there. And it’s no longer painted. Now it’s simply just attached.”

Councilman Jacob Crawford noted that it would be in compliance if an exact replica of his exterior sign was located on the interior side of the front windows.

The electronic outdoor advertising billboard seen on Aug. 16, 2023 was advertising but not on the marque and in plain view.

The mobile electronic advertising signage frequents multiple sites along Guilderland school routes particularly Guilderland Elementary, Westmere Elementary, and Farnsworth Middle School — specifically at sites where town residents have left their homes and families to give public hearing comments asking our leadership to protect families and children from advertising. 

Think about the town response after receiving these public comments to protect children from advertising. Since then, Supervisor Barber boasts of MVP Health Care advertising as sponsorship at Tawasentha Park where our impressionable children play and attend summer camp, and the town allows in full public view the mobile truck-mounted LED-lit outdoor advertising along the school routes and in vicinity of residential neighborhoods. But it’s not hung anywhere and the advertising is not on the marquee. 

Christine Duffy

Guilderland