It may take drivers a while longer to know they're in Johns Creek.
But they most likely will know it by the time the PGA Championship comes to town in August.
City officials have postponed a decision to spend as much as $290,000 for stone gateway signs at about a dozen key entrance points to the city, anchors they say would help brand the young city with a sense of identity. City Council members said last week that they want more options in design and cost before committing money to the project.
The delay comes despite a recent online poll showing 71 percent of residents favored the signs in one form or another, and most of those considered them "very important."
The survey, conducted on the city's website over the past two weeks, drew about 600 respondents. Most favored a branding campaign using gateway signs, but a significant number were uneasy about the cost and timing.
"With the economy like it is in the country, signs are not something the government should be spending our tax dollars on," resident Walter Ford said. "We've got a children's hospital not too far from here that deals with children's cancer. If they're going to insist on taking that money from us, I think it would be used a lot better for something like that."
When the gateway sign project was brought before the council last month, plans were narrowed to two designs. A horizontal stone and wood marker, 33 feet long and 9 feet tall, would cost about $35,000. Vertical structures, about 12 feet tall with wood accents, would cost $17,000 each.
But city officials quickly retreated from the premium scenario, conceding that right-of-way limits would force them to dismiss the more expensive horizontal design.
More cost concessions were made earlier this week when Mayor Mike Bodker backed away from the original plan for 13 markers and suggested gateway signs be placed only at major entryways, such as Medlock Bridge Road, north and south, and State Bridge Road, east and west. He suggested minor entryways, such as Douglas Road at the north end, could be serviced by less expensive, ‘two-dimensional" signs.
Such a plan could bring the cost for the gateway sign project down to about $51,000. That would cover three vertical signs, with a civic organization already committed to funding a fourth.
Even so, council members wanted more choices for the main entrance signs and suggested they take up the issue again in a few weeks after soliciting more design ideas from other sources.
The city has budgeted $25,000 for design work and has already paid Sky Design $13,968 for its efforts to date. The Atlanta-based environmental design firm will not do detailed construction drawings until a final sign is selected.
Johns Creek, barely 4 years old, is not alone in its quest to improve or establish its identity through signage.
Lawrenceville is requesting bids for up to $500,000 in new signage. The project, approved last year with SPLOST money, will include some 50 signs, both large gateway and simple street signs, carrying a uniform design.
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