It was standing room only on Tuesday night in the colonial courthouse, as well over 100 citizens and business owners showed up to voice their concerns about proposed changes to Gloucester’s sign ordinance.

The Gloucester Planning Commission and county staff have been working on the proposed revisions for well over a year, and many county business owners say the rules would be too restrictive.

After a lengthy public hearing, with most of the speakers asking for certain changes to be made to the proposed ordinance, the board voted 5-0 to defer passing any resolution on the sign ordinance.

Abingdon district representative Buddy Rilee was not at the meeting because he was recovering from surgery. Ware district representative Gregory Woodard was also absent.

The board also voted 5-0 to instruct county administrator Brenda Garton to appoint two supervisors to sit down with the county attorney to hash out many of the concerns raised by business owners. The proposed ordinance c...