At least one village of Pinehurst real estate agent thinks the restrictions placed on real estate signs are a good idea.

Pinehurst Village Realty owner Mike Schriber told The Pilot that he intends to continue using the 8- by 10-inch signs that were ordained by the village’s temporary sign ordinance, before that ordinance was struck down by a federal judge in November 1999.

After the judge ruled that the old ordinance was in violation of the real estate agents’ First Amendment rights, the village drafted a new ordinance that doesn’t limit the written content of signs and allows the signs to be 10 inches by 12 inches in size.

But Schriber says he’ll stick with the size restriction originally placed on signs, in order to help preserve the “ambience” of the village.

“We should be different here in Pinehurst,” Schriber said. “There’s no reason why we can’t use the smaller signs. I haven’t talked to one Realtor who has told me that the smaller signs have adversely affected real estate sales.”

Schriber disagrees with the lawsuit the Moore County Realtors’ Association filed against the village last year, which successfully challenged the constitutionality of the village’s temporary sign ordinance. He agreed that word content should not be limited, but he disagreed with the contention that the size restrictions were too harsh.

Last November, a federal judge issued an injunction against the village pursuant to Pinehurst Development Ordinance 13.12.9, which set limits on the size, color, and wording allowed on “For Sale” signs utilized by real estate companies. U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell Eliason ruled that the ordinance violated the realtors’ constitutional rights by seeking to control the content of language that may appear on the signs.

Eliason also ruled in August that the village must pay about $42,000 to cover legal fees incurred by the Realtors’ Association in its legal battle against the temporary sign ordinance.

In order to comply with the November ruling striking down the temporary sign ordinance, the Village Council unanimously passed a revised ordinance in July that does not put limits on the wording of real estate signs and contractor signs. It does control the size and color scheme — limiting signs to the colors hunter green and white.

But that ordinance does not go into effect until six months after the passage of the ordinance, meaning that the village effectively doesn’t have a temporary sign ordinance until late January 2001. Many real estate agents and builders are taking advantage of this lack of an ordinance to use any type of sign they wish.

Schriber said he is aware of — but doesn’t have a copy of — a memo issued by the Moore County Realtors’Association informing Realtors to use “whatever size sign they want and not use the 8-by-10 signs.”

He said the Realtors’ Association is “obviously” planning to wage more legal action against the village’s revised temporary sign ordinance when it goes into effect in January — if not sooner.

“They’ll have that $42,000 from the village by then to help pay for it,” Schriber said. “What really bothers me is, a lot of these folks in the Realtors’ Association don’t have offices in Pinehurst and they don’t live here, but they want to tell us what our temporary sign ordinance should be.

“I think most of the Realtors in the village agree with me but are afraid to speak out against the Realtors’ Association.”

Peyton Gentry of the Moore County Realtors’ Association doesn’t put much credence in Schriber’s accusations. Gentry said that he is aware of only two Realtors opposed to the Realtors’ Association stance, and that Schriber is one of them.

“We did send a memo out to the Realtors telling them to use their normal-sized signs, because currently there is not an ordinance and there won’t be one for quite some time,” Gentry said. “The memo did not advise Realtors to use different-sized signs just to be counter to what the village said — just use the regular signs you already have.