Island broker appealing sign fine

Real estate broker Janalyn Travis-Messer is appealing a $100 fine imposed by Shelter Island Justice Court Judge Mary-Faith Westervelt on November 3.

Ms. Travis-Messer was found guilty of violating the town’s sign ordinance by posting directional signs to a house she was showing.

What got Ms. Travis-Messer in trouble was a sign that went up on the day of the event and was removed right after the open house. But Building Department employee Chris Tehan saw the sign and went to Ms. Travis-Messer’s office at Griffing & Collins the following day with a ticket.

Under the town ordinance, there is no provision for directional signs and a single real estate sign can be placed only on a property for sale. But Ms. Travis-Messer interpreted the directional sign not as advertising for her business, but as an event sign.

When she requested a list of those who had been cited for similar violations in 2014, only one name appeared — hers. And the previous year, broker Georgiana B. Ketcham had been cited, but in her case, the building department maintained there were several signs and she was fined $250.

“The sign thing is absolutely ludicrous,” Ms. Ketcham said.

Ms. Travis-Messer calls the ordinance “discriminating,” adding that “property rights are being trampled.”

Her argument to the court and, subsequently to the Town Board at two meetings in November, was that real estate professionals are a “benefit” to the town because they drive the economy.

“This Island was built on real estate,” Ms. Travis-Messer told the Reporter this week. Nathanael Sylvester owned the land and made the decision to sell off parcels that subsequently became subdivisions, she said. “This is not something new.”

When realtors sell properties, there’s a tax on the sale and a 2-percent Community Preservation Fund tax the buyer pays to enable the town to purchase and preserve open spaces. New buyers generate work for contractors, landscapers and others who make necessary repairs or renovations to properties and often continue to serve in a maintenance capacity, the broker said.

The money generated by realtors goes to the government, she added. Yet the sign ordinance makes no accommodation for real estate.

It does allow for event signage for the Fire Department’s Chicken Barbecue and Country Fair and for yard sales, activities at the Shelter Island Historical Society and other organizations’ events, Ms. Travis-Messer said. Those events provide money to support worthy organizations, but don’t have an impact on the town’s economy the way real estate sales do, she said.

In addition to being discriminatory, the current ordinance is “stepping on free speech,” she said.

When she initially came to a Town Board work session with her complaint, there were only three of the five members present and Councilman Ed Brown, who is employed by M. Wein Realty, had to recuse himself from the discussion.

At a subsequent meeting with the full Town Board, there seemed to be little appetite for pursuing changes to the ordinance.

Ms. Lewis told the Reporter that the other real estate professionals on the Island seem not to have a problem understanding the ordinance and she sees no need to change it.

“I’m sorry this occurred for her,” the councilwoman said about the fine, but the ordinance came about several years ago when Island properties were littered with real estate signs — sometimes four or five signs on a single property.

As for the Building Department charged with code enforcement, the man who ticketed Ms. Travis-Messer, Mr. Tehan said only that Judge Westervelt agreed with the town ordinance and declined further comment. He was responding to a question the Reporter had put to Building Inspector Bill Banks.