When Byron Hickox drove into Waynesville for a job interview with the town planning department, small details jumped out at him amongst the clutter of fast-food restaurants, stop lights and the hectic left-turn lane that define the commercial strip of Russ Avenue — details that signaled to him the town had begun a slow march toward reinventing sprawl.

He noticed small saplings along the curb that one day will create a tree-lined boulevard. He noticed signs were not obnoxiously tall. And he noticed the façade of the newest building under construction, a CVS drug store, abutted the street and the parking was to the side and back.

“It’s obvious when you come into town that it has a land-use plan that at least has been tried to be followed,” Hickox said.

Tried is a relative term, however, when it comes to one part of the town’s land-use plan: the sign ordinance. There are dozens of illegal signs in Waynesville. Banners are one of the biggest violations. Banners are illegal but rampant, announcing everything from “free nights and weekends” to “Voted best pizza.”

Portable signs — also illegal — are everywhere, including sale signs on a stick, sandwich boards propped on a sidewalk or the electronic signboards that feature blinking arrows.

“One of the big things and I have found after having been here for a month or more is the majority of the town is completely behind the enforcement of the sign ordinance,” Hickox said. Cracking down on signs became his first assignment.

For John Swift, the person who preceded Hickox, the sign ordinance wasn’t a top priority, according to Paul Benson, the town planning director.

“Byron has definitely been playing catch-up,” Benson said.

Hickox said the job isn’t as bad as it might sound on the surface, especially given the pro smart-growth climate in Waynesville.

“In other places I worked, I always had the support of the elected officials and my coworkers, but I didn’t always feel like I had the support of the citizens. The person you were calling on the phone or writing a letter to enforcing an ordinance doesn’t support what the town is trying to do,” Hickox said. “You are just out on a limb and feel like the whole town is against you.”

But in Waynesville, Hickox said business owners aren’t against the sign ordinance in principle. What they are opposed to, however, is selective enforcement. With dozens of illegal signs all over town, business owners’ top question to Hickox is what about those other guys?

No one wants to take down a banner from their store when everyone else still has one up. Hickox explains that he will eventually get to everyone, but has to start somewhere.

Of course, those with a sign in place before the ordinance was passed are exempt from the new law.

“There are a lot of things in town that are non-conforming and are grandfathered in,” said Benson. “The new guy across the street looks at it and thinks it’s legal and puts one up, too.”

Benson said those exempt signs will gradually disappear.

“In 10 years, at least 50 percent of those business will either turn over or remodel or move locations and they will have to come into compliance,” Benson said.

Another top response Hickox hears is “what sign ordinance?”

“I think a lot of people are genuinely ignorant of what it says,” Hickox said. “People I have contacted about violations didn’t know there was an ordinance and were happy to know what they need to do to fix it.”

Hickox could move more quickly if he simply fired off mass mailings to businesses with violations, but it goes against his strategy.

“A letter can seem cold and clinical,” Hickox said. Instead, he always calls first and tells them a letter is on its way, so their first experience is with another human being, not an envelope.

Hickox said he feels bad for people who have spent money on a sign only to find out they can’t use it.

“Before putting any sign anywhere of any type, come see me and get a sign permit and avoid any headache of my coming along two weeks down the road and saying, ‘hey, your sign is illegal,’” Hickox said.

A lot of businesses think as long as an old sign stays up — even if it is just the shell of a sign or a pole with brackets — that they can put a sign up in its place one day. But that is one of the biggest misconceptions in the sign law.

A sign advertising a business that is no longer located on the property is illegal. And a new business can’t take advantage of an old abandoned sign frame that belonged to a former business. Once a business disappears, the grandfathered sign can’t be passed on to the next business filling that store.

“It can’t just sit there for years,” Hickox said.

For now, it appears the town is stuck with the McDonald’s sign, the set of golden arches mounted on a pole that rivals cell towers’ height.

“If it were to accidentally to fall down one day, it would have to be replaced,” said Hickox.

Hickox, 33, was the county planner for Logan County, Col., for three years. Before that, he served as a planning consultant with a regional commission to an 18-county area in southern Georgia. He said he likes working in a town with such a pro-active land-use plan.

“I might not see some of the outcomes of the land-use plan’s goals during my career or even my lifetime. But some are shorter term with sign ordinance and cleanup and ordinances we can take care of immediately,” Hickox said. “Even though we are a little behind on enforcing sign violations Waynesville is way ahead of other towns that are more of a free for all.”

Hickox is also responsible for reviewing building plans and designs to see that they conform with the town’s land-use plan and criteria before a building permit is issued.