Locally Grown Northfield

  
The Holiday gas station on N. Hwy 3 has a sign that’s outlined in blue neon. A local business owner recently remarked to me that he found it offensively bright.  For comparison see the adjacent Amcon gas station.

I checked the City of Northfield’s municipal code on Signage, Section 3.7 and found this:

3.7.9 Design Guidelines. The following standards are intended to direct the design elements of signage outside the downtown historic district. Each guideline shall be applied for each sign application based upon review by the city planner:

(A) Neon lights are permitted for messages and symbols, but shall not flash.

While the neon isn’t flashing, it’s not being used for messages and symbols either, like the coffee cup neon sign in the window of Goodbye Blue Monday.

Is this a problem or much ado about nothing?

Update 7 am 3/28:

Sean Hayford O’Leary’s comment below prompted me to take photos of signs for Northfield businesses that appear to be out of compliance with Northfield’s ordinance that prohibits flashing neon lights:  Tobacco Field on Hwy 3; Downtown Tobacco on Division; and the HideAway Coffeehouse & Winebar on Division:

So I’ve changed the blog post title from:

Is the Holiday gas station sign outlined in blue neon in compliance?

to:

Are some of the neon signs by Northfield’s businesses out of compliance?

Here’s a 27-second video clip of the flashing/animated neons signs: