GEARHART — The city administrator has urged businesses to contact City Hall before creating or replacing signs after a dispute with Good Times.

André Allen Anjos, a Portland-based musician known as RAC, Ireland Baldwin, the daughter of actor Alec Baldwin, and their friend Doug Niblack opened the cafe and wine bar on Pacific Way earlier this year.

Sign requirements in the commercial zone where Good Times is located limit permanent signs to 2 feet in height.

“Our C-1 code is designed to work within the residential neighborhoods, so it’s a little bit more restrictive,” City Administrator Chad Sweet said. “Businesses are intended to fit into the residential character of the neighborhood.

“I saw the sign. It was all laid out. It was really well done. But unfortunately, in me signing all the permits, I know that there was not a sign permit that had been done for that particular location. I also noticed that the sign was a lot larger than it should have been.”

Sweet said Good Times was also displaying a small neon sign in the window. According to the city’s comprehensive plan, signs from properties “shall be designed and located so as to prevent casting a glare or direct light from artificial illumination upon adjacent public streets or adjacent property.”

Anjos recognizes that the city has every right to enforce the rules, but he believes the language used in the code is not adequately specific.

“City code should be airtight, have specifics like lumen requirements, measurable definitive statements instead of vague language like ‘casting a glare,’” he said. “This shouldn’t even be in question, but if I’m being honest, this was never actually about the light.”

“In this scenario, it’s being used as a tool to selectively enforce it upon businesses they take issue with,” he added.

Anjos was also critical of the city’s anonymous complaint-based system of enforcement, seeing it as a way for the city to avoid scrutiny from businesses subjected to complaints.

Good Times has chosen to comply and move past a conflict that, like many issues in Gearhart, was fueled by posts on social media.

“Lawyers are expensive, and this is not what I’d like to be spending my time on,” Anjos said. “I want to be working on my business and serving the Gearhart community.”

At a City Council meeting on Wednesday, city councilors denied the city had singled out Good Times.

Mayor Kerry Smith described the owners as “newbies.”

“In their email, they said they were doing everything by the book,” he said. “The only thing I can say to them is that they are in the wrong book and on the wrong page.”

City Councilor Preston Devereaux and City Councilor Sharon Kloepfer advocated sending out packets to new businesses to ensure owners are up to date on city rules.

“New businesses, it’s up to them to know what the rules are,” Devereaux said.