State Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines is seeking a means for downtown businesses to keep signs in place in the face of state regulations that say they must be permanently moved from state rights-of-way.
Thomas staffer Kaci Schroeder Hotch said federal law seems to show that the state Department of Transportation can work with federal secretary of Transportation to grandfather in the kinds of right-of-way encroachments that appear in Haines.
The state has cited federal law in its insistence that signs hanging within its right-of-way on Main Street and other state roads must be removed and that awnings and park benches there must pay a $100, annual permit for encroachment.
Schroeder Hotch, who is an attorney, also has drafted a bill that “creates an exception to limitations on signs in commercial areas.” She said the exception would allow signs “such as the ones found in Haines to continue to exist in the state right-of-way.”
A lawyer in the office of the state attorney general came to a similar conclusion as Schroeder Hotch’s, but further action was awaiting discussion with state Department of Transportation officials.
“It’s just in the research phase. We don’t know if DOT has tried this and been totally shot down by the feds,” said Schroeder Hotch.