Stafford’s prohibition against roof displays leaves some residents and businesses hot and bothered

By RUTH FINCH
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 11/2/2004

Rooftop sign violates zoning, Stafford says

It’s big, it’s red, it’s 10 feet long, and it’s guaranteed to attract attention.

The gigantic chili pepper that has become standard equipment on the roof of all new Chili’s restaurants is called flair in the marketing world.

The term used by Stafford County zoning officials: illegal.

“It has nothing to do with the fact that it’s a chili pepper,” said county spokeswoman Cathy Riddle. “It’s because of its location. No roof signs are allowed.”

The same sign ordinance brought the Fiberglas pig at the Virginia Barbeque Co. on U.S. 1 in North Stafford down to earth earlier this year.

The owner of that restaurant, Rick Ivey, defiantly left his 41/2-foot tall pig statue on the roof of his store for more than a month after county officials told him it violated the county’s sign ordinance.

At Chili’s, the giant pepper sat in an open crate in the store’s parking lot for weeks before the store opened Sept. 27.

Customers who had seen the crate while the restaurant was under construction asked the store manager why the roof was bare for the restaurant’s opening. The answer got one customer, North Stafford resident Mary Davidson, so angry that she fired off a letter to Supervisor Kandy Hilliard.

“People have these ways of personalizing their businesses, setting themselves apart from all the monotonous golden arches,” she said last week. “There are so many things the people who make decisions should clean up instead of going after people trying to advertise their business in an appropriate way.”

Hilliard took the heat for the pig situation at the beginning of the year. But this time, she said, she’s staying out of it. She wants it known that she doesn’t have anything to do with the county’s Code Administration Department, which is responsible for enforcing the sign ordinance.

Tony Mathena is real-estate director for the company that owns the new Chili’s franchise in Stafford Marketplace, Chesapeake Restaurants of Virginia. He said he shipped the chili pepper back to the sign company he ordered it from.

Maybe he will use it on the next restaurant he opens, he said. Or maybe he’ll find a way to get it up after all.

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Date published: 11/2/2004