WESTBROOK – What can the city do to help downtown businesses? Two words: Signs and traffic.

That was the message from an open-house event held at Full Court Press at 855 Main St. last Thursday at noontime, where Bill Baker, Westbrook’s assistant city administrator for business and community relations, met with local business leaders.

Already, Baker and the city appear to be listening to the business community. Baker told the crowd on Sept. 6 that he was working on an amendment to the city’s sign ordinance, which will address larger businesses in town such as car dealerships along Main Street. On Monday, the City Council voted to send those suggested changes to the Planning Board for discussion.

Thursday’s event was the first of four that Baker will be holding at various locations throughout the city. He said the goal is to introduce himself to business owners he has not met yet, but also to listen to what those owners feel he needs to do to make the city more business friendly.

“You’re all critical, obviously not only to the health of the downtown, but to the city of Westbrook,” he told an attendance of 17 local business owners.

Baker has only been on the job for a few weeks, hired by Mayor Colleen Hilton to fill the role vacated by Keith Luke, the former economic director who stepped down in December 2011. On Thursday, by way of introduction, Hilton said she hired Baker in part because of his history with the city, having served as police chief for three years, but also because she believes he can help get things done for local business.

“He’s an action person, and that’s what we were looking for,” she said.

Hilton said the city is now involved in a number of new projects directly related to the downtown area. She declined to go into specifics, but said the projects would only improve the business climate in the area.

“There’s going to be a lot of activity in the downtown area,” she said.

Cindy Tobiassen, president of Moonlight Cleaners, at 823 Main St., said she has been in business there for 13 years, and the only real problem she has had is with sign ordinances. She said her shop also offers tanning services, and when she hung a small banner outside her business advertising that, the city told her she had to take it down. The reason, she said, was the ordinance listed her as being in a special district that didn’t allow the banner.

“I realize I’m in a special district, but tell that to my pocketbook,” she said.

Changing the rules on signage, she said, would help her a great deal. Donald Littlefield, who has owned Sportsman’s True Value Hardware on William Clarke Drive for 20 years, agreed.

“I’m on the bypass, and I’ve got cars going by at 40 mph,” he said. “You’ve got to do something to get their attention.”

The proposed amendment to the sign ordinance Baker sent to the city, he said, is geared toward larger signs than what might be found in the downtown area, but, Baker said, he hopes the business community sees this as an indication he is willing to listen to issues – and take action.

“This is an indication of the approach I intend to take,” he said.

The proposed amendment came in part from car dealer Rowe Ford, which suggested three specific changes to the law.

First, allow total signage size limits to be directly proportional to the size of a business’ lot. Right now, the law limits the size of signage areas to 500 square feet, regardless of whether the business lot is 10,000 square feet or 300,000 square feet.

“Assuming that the purpose behind the signage limitation is to prevent visual clutter and negative aesthetic impact, this regulation makes little sense,” the proposal reads. “Five hundred square feet of signage spread over 300,000 square feet (roughly seven acres) has nowhere near the impact as the same signage spread over 10,000 square feet (roughly one quarter acre).”

Second, the proposal would not require signs to be modified except as part of a large site plan review project. Now, if a business has an older sign that would be too large by current standards, any time that business needed Planning Board approval to change anything on its site, the board has the right to force the business to change signs, too.

Finally, the proposal gives the code enforcement department more leeway in allowing “reasonable amounts of signage” given certain conditions.

The proposal first requires Planning Board approval, then will come back to the City Council for final approval.

Based on Thursday’s business meeting, traffic flow is also a big issue, especially for downtown business owners. Full Court Press owner Ed Symbol said commuter traffic is critical to his business. Many of his clients, he said, come from communities west of town, such as Gorham, and he worried about discussions he’s heard in the past about making Main Street one way, which would cut off half of his business.

“It’s not just about Westbrook. It’s about what’s out there,” he said, gesturing to the west.

James Tranchemontagne, owner of the Frog and Turtle restaurant on Bridge Street, noted that high property taxes and excessive bonded debt is part of the problem.

“I think you’ve got deeper problems than signage here,” he said, but added that he wants to keep his business in town.

“We didn’t stay in Portland. We could have been pretty comfortable there, but I like the way of life here,” he said.

Tranchemontagne suggested Baker look at revamping the city’s website, which he called “embarrassing,” but added that the Westbrook Performing Arts Center has been a boon to his business, and promoting it more would help him and his fellow owners.

“It helps my business when there’s a big show in town,” he said.

Symbol, commenting on the session, said it was good for local business leaders to meet each other, something that doesn’t often happen.

“I think business owners downtown, for a long time, (they’ve been) focused on their own business,” he said.

Molly Sinclair Bull, with the law firm Cooper & Bull, at 850 Main St., said her business is in the 10,000-square-foot building across from Full Court Press, and noted there are a lot of other empty storefronts there that she would like to see filled.

“We would love it if this were made a part of a more pedestrian friendly city of Westbrook,” she said.

Littlefield said he enjoyed meeting Baker and Hilton, and took it as a sign the city is paying more attention to businesses like his.

“I just think the atmosphere feels that way,” he said. “They’re here because they’d like it to be better.”

Bill Baker, Westbrook’s assistant city administrator for business and community relations, talks with Molly Sinclair Bull, of the law firm Cooper & Bull, at a business open house last week at Full Court Press on Main Street. The event is one of four that Baker is hosting to meet with local business leaders and talk about their needs.