Vote Decides 'No Political Signs' On Rowayton Community Fence

NORWALK, CT — Rowayton residents voted by a better than 2-to-1 margin Wednesday to keep the current rules for the popular community message fence on Rowayton Avenue that prohibits "political signs," such as Black Lives Matter.

The final vote tally, according to the district, was 438 in favor of preserving the current rules, and 203 in favor of allowing a Black Lives Matter sign to remain up on the fence for a year. A total of 641 votes were cast. See the guidelines below for what is called the Old School Fence.

"We expect the fence to return to its traditional use by January 25th," district officials wrote. "The 6TD will re-install the panels for the Rowayton Civic Association, the Rowayton Library and the Rowayton Arts Center."

For years, the fence has held messages and announcements, birthday wishes and other items. But last year, following protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, some residents placed a "Black Lives Matter in Rowayton" sign on the fence.

The sign was vandalized and met with complaints from a few residents who said the message was too political, and it was removed by the Sixth Taxing District Commission. Commissioners said that the sign was only allowed for a short amount of time.

That decision was met with more complaints, a rally during the summer and several commission meetings where residents spoke in favor of the sign. Some residents even started a GoFundMe campaign to replace the vandalized sign, and raised more than $5,300 toward the effort.

The sign was allowed to return in the fall, but was met with a "Back the Blue" sign as a counter-protest, which led to another round of complaints.

Wednesday's vote initially had three options on the ballot, but one was withdrawn that would have required residents to obtain 100 signatures to allow certain types of signs.

Old School Fence

• The Old School Fence is to be used for local announcements, local events, and local promotions. No political signs.
• Given the limited space, the fence will be for Rowayton residents and Rowayton organizations only
• We ask that users send a note to info@rowayton6td.com when they put up a sign for events and personal messages. This is so the 6TD knows who owns the sign, and we can monitor the length of time it is being hung.
• Promotion for events can go up to 6 weeks prior to event, but we ask it is taken down immediately after the event is over.
• For personal messages, (congrats, happy birthday, welcome home type signs), we ask that they are up for no more than 2 weeks.
• 6TD will monitor this to ensure signs don’t overstay their welcome.