Small business owners across Nashville are suddenly double-checking their sidewalks. After Metro Codes started enforcing updated sign rules, some merchants say they have been ordered to yank their A-frame sandwich boards or face daily fines, cutting off what they see as a cheap, reliable way to grab the attention of people walking or driving by.
In Hermitage, baker Danny Greenberg of Flour Your Dreams says he received a notice from Metro Codes telling him to remove his folding-frame sign or get hit with a $60-per-day fine. He says that after a call to his councilmember, he was later told he could bring the sign back out. That back-and-forth, and the gap between what the rules say on paper and how they are enforced on the street, has left other small operators unsure what is actually allowed, especially in strip-mall and suburban settings, according to reporting from the Nashville Scene.
New Rules And Who Writes Them
The policy shift is split between the city’s zoning code and transportation code. One amendment to Title 17 officially defines a “sandwich board” and sets limits on size, height and accessibility when those signs sit on private property. A separate ordinance in Chapter 13 hands control of sandwich boards in the public right-of-way to the Nashville Department of Transportation.
Under that transportation ordinance, NDOT is instructed to issue nontransferable two-year permits, require a certificate of liability insurance with a minimum of $1 million in coverage, and create fees and placement standards for the signs. Those details are laid out in the legislation posted on Legistar.
Why Shopkeepers Push For Signs
For many small storefronts, those little sidewalk boards are not decorative; they are survival tools. Owners say that if a shop sits back from a main road, tucked behind a parking lot or away from a busy intersection, a sandwich board is often the only thing that tells passing drivers and pedestrians the business exists…