Washington Township to Introduce Sign Law Change

Drivers passing by the on Pascack Road in Washington Township can expect to see a greater variety of signs starting this fall.

The Washington Township Council came to a consensus during their meeting this week that they would introduce changes to a sign ordinance governing the strip mall during their next meeting. The changes include removing restrictions that all signs must use the same color and font, and business owners will be able to expand to fill a 12.5-foot by 4-foot area.

Businesses owners have said they believe by having signs which use different colors, fonts and logos to differentiate them from each other. They described the current signs, which are almost all blue, as looking like a "blur."

Ada Gazzillo of  said that when the restaurant briefly had a red "Trattoria" sign, they had many new customers coming in. When they later took the red sign down, fewer customers came, Gazzillo said.

"They thought we were Vincent's Cinema," Gazzillo previously said.

Business owners will still need permission from the strip mall's owner and the township before they can install new signs.

Council members also agreed to modify the ordinance to let John Azarian, the managing and leasing agent for the strip mall, put up signs in the windows of empty stores to advertise them. Azarian also recently put up temporary real estate signs along Pascack Road .

One aspect of the sign ordinance officials did not agree to change was tall marquee sign, which only advertises , the post office and the movie theater.

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