The Bend City Council is scheduled to discuss on Wednesday changes to Bend’s sign ordinance — what signs businesses can and can’t have.

There’s one change the city should make and one it should not.

The city should allow sandwich-board signs — such as those you see on the sidewalks downtown — all over town. And the city should not force a business owner to redo a sign that does not conform to the law if it is damaged through no fault of the business owner.

The city allows sandwich-board signs downtown. They can’t be too big — up to about 6 square feet. And they have to be put away at night. But anywhere else in town business owners are basically out of luck. That is not fair.

If a sandwich-board sign is going to block the sidewalk and people can’t get around, that’s one thing. But the city’s ban is just because the signs aren’t downtown. Businesses outside of downtown deserve fair treatment. They have just as much need to entice customers or let customers know who and what they are. Give them the same ability to have the sandwich-board signs as downtown businesses.

The other issue has to do with grandfathering signs that exceed the city’s limits. For instance, the Riverhouse on the Deschutes has a large monument sign on U.S. Highway 20. It does not conform to the city’s sign code. Under existing law, “when a nonconforming sign is damaged by causes beyond the control of the owner, the sign may be rebuilt to the same size and height, using the same types of original material.” The city is considering removing that provision. It should not. The city should not force a business owner to change an older sign because somebody accidentally runs into it.