Signs are popping up all around him in Lake Wylie. So, why not his?

Frank Keefe is no politician. Yet as political and other signs pop up along the highway fronting his business, he finds himself with an issue.

“They want to take advantage of the free advertising,” said Keefe, 69, pointing out signs for political candidates, a produce stand, job openings, commercial leasing space, even competing restaurants. “What makes us any different?”

Keefe opened Bagel Boat at 4090 Charlotte Highway after moving to Lake Wylie in 2007. He’s invested almost everything he has into the business. Keefe sells bagels and the boat name seemed to fit the area, but he also sells other items potential customers might miss from the moniker. He’s even promoted sales dressed in an ice cream suit in the summer’s heat.

“I’m called Bagel Boat but I’m not just bagels,” he said. “I want the public to know I sell sandwiches.”

A couple of years ago Keefe had sidewalk signs made but was soon after told by York County he couldn’t keep them in front of the store. Earlier this month, he put up several small yard signs, the kind someone might see on a golf course during a fundraiser tournament. They named lunch sandwiches.

“For the week or so we had them out there, they were helping me to bring in more business,” Keefe said.

The county stepped in again. Keefe was told to take them down or face a penalty. The county can fine businesses $425 a day for illegal signs. It isn’t the county code enforcement officer he has a beef with, any more than it is with political candidates or others who have signs along the highway.

“Sometimes regulations get in the way of common sense,” Keefe said. “This is not about the people. It seems to me it’s a regulation that defies common sense.”

Sign posters can apply for variances through the county, but the small signs in Lake Wylie aren’t an issue of being an inch or two bigger than allowed. They aren’t allowed at all. Signage rules in York County are extensive, and even more so in Lake Wylie, where a more stringent set supersedes the county list.

“There are two sign ordinances,” said Audra Miller, county planning director. “There is the general sign ordinance, and there is a special overlay for the Lake Wylie area.”

Turns out, if Bagel Boat were located anywhere but the S.C. 49 corridor — from Buster Boyd Bridge to S.C. 557 at Oakridge Road — home to the Lake Wylie overlay, his new signs would be fine.

“The general sign ordinance permits temporary signs, but the Lake Wylie Overlay ordinance does not,” said Trish Startup, public information officer for the county. “Temporary signs are not listed, so staff has interpreted and applied this provision to mean temporary signs are not allowed in the overlay.”

They are mentioned in the general sign ordinance, so they are allowed elsewhere. There are rules in those areas on how many there can be, how close together and how long they stay there.

“As far as enforcement of the ordinances, we are a complaint driven department, so if we receive a complaint about a temporary sign, we will go out and remove it,” Startup said.

Complaints aren’t rare.

“In other areas of the county, we’ve received numerous complaints about violations, and (York County) Council asked us to be proactive in these areas for enforcement, which we did for a number of months,” Startup said. “The situation improved greatly.”

So far, the county still waits for complaints in Lake Wylie.

“We have not been notified of a similar problem in the Lake Wylie area, so we have continued to enforce by responding to complaints,” Startup said.

Keefe said his signs, less than 6 square feet each, were put out and taken back in during daily business hours. They stood between the sidewalk and his business, not the sidewalk and road. They weren’t in the public right-of-way.

“There’s nothing obstructing anybody’s view,” he said.

Keefe said the ordinance, as written, isn’t friendly to small business and he questions its original intent. The nine-page overlay, passed in 2000, details a variety of construction, signage and other criteria for Lake Wylie. It aims to guide land use that, according to the language within it, “both enhances the desirability and ambiance of the community as a place in which to live, work and assist the community’s economic viability.”

Keefe sees it falling short on the latter goal.

“I live and work in this community,” he said. “I have a major investment, for me, in this community. I employ eight or 10 local people. We are in an extremely competitive marketplace. We want to be able to market ourselves to the marketplace.”

From what he understands, the simplest goal of the overlay was to create an entryway into the community. There were mature trees lining the highway coming in from Buster Boyd Bridge. Keefe sees value in making a great first impression there.

The irony for him is, many of those trees came down as new businesses like QuikTrip came in. The ones in front of his store remain, a small part of the larger entryway vision but also the reason potential customers have a hard time seeing Bagel Boat or the specials advertised in windows or on the building.

Keefe has no problem with small signs that aren’t causing safety problems by limiting sight lines. He was asked to put up signs for both Lake Wylie candidates for York County Council ahead of the June primary. Election and civic group signs are allowed. He has no problem with farm stands, their signs allowed because of agricultural use. He doesn’t even mind national chains competing for the same lunch crowd, if small businesses like his also are allowed to advertise.

“We’re shopkeepers,” Keefe said. “We’re not big corporations. We need the support.”

He isn’t sure what he’ll do with the signs he spent a couple hundred dollars on, or the banner he can’t hang on the van facing the highway. He just hopes to figure out a way to bring in more customers without drawing penalties or fines, before the lunch specials become moot.

“I’m just doing what I can to survive,” Keefe said.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Signs are popping up all around him in Lake Wylie. So, why not his?."